The Solar Souls
by intergalacticprince
Summary: An intergalactic team called the Solar Souls fight to protect the universe from attacking monstrosities. But it isn't always as simple as fighting off the bad guys all day. This is a tale of love, captivating adventures, and overpowering friendship that will help them overcome any obstacle in their way!
1. Chapter 1

_Nico's POV_

 _This was just meant to be a normal day! I was meant to go through the school day, and go home and finish my homework! How did this happen! How did I end up here?_

 _Oh wait… I know…_

~10:35 AM~

"J'ai, tu as, il a, elle a, on a..."

The words were going in through one of Nico's ears, and out the other. As she dazed outside, staring at the swaying trees and the clear blue skies, her pen wandered aimlessly across the page. Her French teacher droned on about the past tense, but Nico couldn't be the slightest bit interested. She hated French, and she hated the teacher, simple as.

As blossom fell from the trees, Nico spotted a small object in the distance out of the corner of her eye. It looked like it was heading towards the school! 'No,' she thought, 'That's crazy, it can't be…', but nevertheless, the object was speeding towards the building and it was gaining in size. She wanted to scream, but, her mouth didn't seem to want to open. She wanted to move, but she was just

so fixated on the object that she couldn't peel her eyes away for a second.

That's when she realised the object was closer than before, a mere 100 metres away from the school. In a panic, she brought her arms up to her chest and shut her eyes, hoping she'd make it out alive somehow.

Gasps and mutters spread around the room. Nico was baffled by the fact that she wasn't squashed by the object; surely that object must have hit her? When she opened her eyes, she expected to see at least some kind of dent in the wall. But no, rather the contrary…

Vines, bushes and greenery surrounded the window in front of her. Confused and shocked, she looked outside to see that the greenery continued on, and cocooned in amongst the shrubs and leaves, was the object that she had seen in the sky.

~ Aboard SS Cosmo, the object from the sky ~

"I knew it would work! I knew it!" Skye shouted, his voice full of adrenaline and excitement.

"But still, we could have nearly killed a bunch of people if your plan had failed..." Aphrodite added,

running her fingers through her long golden hair.

"Yeah, but my plan worked!" Skye grinned, and pressed the button to open up the space capsule.

The others soon followed suit after Skye, all seven of them.

As they climbed up onto the roof of the capsule, they got many gasps from the people in the school building above; thousands of eyes looking down at the peculiar scene.

"We are looking for Nico, bearer of Earth's soul." Harriette spoke, her voice loud and clear as her pale silver-grey eyes traced over the building.

"Did that weirdo just say she's looking for Nico?"

Whispers spread throughout the classroom Nico was stood in, and she blushed bright red. All eyes turned to her as the whispers soon turned to chatter and then loud shouts. 'Shut up!' Nico thought, 'They'll know I'm here!'. But it was too late, the crowd that stood atop the capsule soon heard the shouts, and became intrigued.

"Let me go find her, please!" Skye practically begged to Dan. Dan ran his hand through his red-tinted hair, and shrugged, "It was your idea after all..." He said slowly, and Skye beamed.

A blue aura arose around him, the smoky blue gas lifting him up to the classroom that was covered by the vines and shrubbery. Gracefully, he landed on the floor and shook his dark blue hair from his face, "Hello, I'm Skye, bearer of Neptune's soul! That probably makes no sense to you, but I guess the saying is, do not be afraid, for I come in peace!" He grinned, smiling at the students who were absolutely gob-smacked.

"Now, myself and my group, or as I like to call them, the Solar Souls," He giggled to himself before blushing, "Are looking for Nico. Any one know who she is or where she might be?"

All eyes turned once again to Nico, and the whole class took a collective step backwards. Nico, her feet glued to the floor, gulped as she looked towards the boy, Skye.

"So, you must be Nico! I must say, you do resemble your mother!" He beamed, "It's a pleasure to meet you, but introductions and explanations will have to wait for now! We have to get you out of here!" He said quickly, and took her hand.

"I've found her!" Skye shouted, as he floated back down to the ground with Nico, who was trying hard not to scream. A group of random people, whom she had never met before, were pulling her about and knew her name! How was that even possible! Just ten minutes ago she was sitting in French, learning about the past tense, and now she was being pulled into a space capsule.

However, she couldn't seem to fight back or reject it. Something inside her wanted this adventure.

Mutters spread throughout the school as teachers pleaded with students to get back into their classrooms. A loud booming voice spread throughout the school, which Nico could make out to be her head mistress, "Give her back now! Or we will have to call the authorities!"

Nico's eyes looked back up at her school to see her head mistress, the microphone in her hand and her cheeks rosy red and flustered. She seemed to look in a state of panic, well, the side of her school had nearly been torn down by a mysterious capsule, and now these odd strangers were taking away one of her pupils ; that seemeda good reason to panic.

"Sorry, no can do." Phil said up to her. He was very tall, and his sweeping black hair seemed to have streaks of light blue running through it, the colour almost matching his icy blue eyes.

"We have to take her, and sooner rather than later preferably." Dan said straight after him, as if the words had been rehearsed. He looked so different to Phil, yet so similar. Dan was tall, just like Phil, but his dark hair was tinted red, and his eyes were a dark brown, that seemed to be speckled with dark crimson. Tanned skin and a tough figure seemed much a contrast to Phil, who was very pale, and seemed to be more delicate and airy, much alike gas in a way. The two contrasts of a rocky and a gas like appearance made them seem, if Nico dared say it, perfect for eachother.

Dan and Phil both headed back in the capsule, with two other rather tall men, who's names were Chris and Pj. Chris' hair was a golden-blonde mess that swayed as he walked, and Pj had a mess of deep green locks. The four of them made an interesting sight to see.

Harriette got back into the capsule, and Aphrodite quickly followed suit. The only people left upon the top of the capsule were Skye, Nico, and another boy Quince. Quince and Skye grinned at eachother, and both of them grabbed Nico's arms. They waved back up at the peering eyes, and took Nico back into the capsule.

Screams and shouts could be heard from outside the ship, but this did not seem to falter the two ladies, Harriette and Aphrodite, who sat in the two main seats, starting the capsule for lift off.

"Pathway is clear, we're ready to take off in three, two, one..."

"You may wanna take a seat." Quince grinned, sitting Nico down between himself and Skye, before the capsule started to shake, the engine starting to wurr, and the capsule starting to lift off the ground.

Nico gulped as she stared out the window opposite where she sat. Everyone seemed to be staring at her but she couldn't understand why. What was she doing? Why was she here? Everything was so confusing, she wanted to scream.

"Wh-why I am here..." She managed to get out, her voice shaky and nervous

"Ah, finally, we thought you'd never ask!" Chris grinned, his hazel eyes flickering over her as Pj nudged him in the side, "No need to be so rude, Chris…" He said, as he smiled over at Nico.

"We kind of, need you, for our intergalactic team who protect the universe." Phil said, and Dan nodded.

"We're the solar souls!" Skye added, a grin on his face, his blue eyes sparkling.

"No we aren't." Aphrodite said from the front of the capsule, and Skye folded his arms and huffed, muttering something under his breath.

"Don't call my girlfriend a butt-head, Skye!" Harriette said, and Skye blushed crimson. He had forgotten about her excellent hearing senses.

Nico was still in shock. She had seen a capsule nearly crash into the side of her school, a boy float on a blue gas cloud, and now there was a woman with super hearing. She was sure this was a dream, that she would wake up and this would all be over. In an attempt to somehow wake herself up, she pinched her arm, but, nothing happened.

"You humans have such weird customs," Pj smiled at her, "Pinching your arm isn't going to wake you up, because you aren't dreaming."

Had he read her mind? How did he know what she was thinking! This was all impossible!

"You're confused aren't you? Very confused. Well, I guess I will explain," Pj said softly.

"Everyone get comfortable, he's for sure gonna turn it into some story." Chris rolled his eyes with a smirk, and Pj nudged his side again, but harder this time.

"So let's begin. You are, Nico, to put it in simple terms, a solar soul,"

Aphrodite rolled her eyes.

"You bear Earth's soul, and possess it's powers. Your mother once possessed these powers, but once she gave birth to you, she had to give them up, and they now belong to you. Inside of you, is a tiny bit of Earth, but it is ever so powerful! Didn't you see what you did there, with the shrubs and plants! Extraordinary!"

Nico blushed, out of the ordinary was more what she had in mind.

"All of us here, possess a fragment of each planets core, which we call souls. I, for instance, am Jupiter, hence my dark green hair and eyes. Each of us develop traits similar to the look of our planet. Of course, these are only our human forms, which we use for practical reasons. In our normal form, we look much different to this."

Nico took a second to let the information set in. Her head seemed to be spinning, all this new knowledge of solar souls and intergalactic space teams. If her mother had passed it onto her, why had she not told her about it? Why was she hearing about it from a weird bunch of strangers?

"Now, your mother tried to keep this from you, in an attempt to let you live a normal human life for as long as possible. Myself, Chris, Dan, Phil, Skye and Quince were all very much the same, we did not know we possessed these powers until weird and strange things started happening to us. All of a sudden, I would go to hang out with Chris, and I knew that he was thinking about the latest film he had watched, but he wasn't telling me directly. It was a strange feeling, of course, I was reading my best friend's mind. But then, Aphrodite and Harriette came along, and explained to us exactly what was happening."

Aphrodite was nodding in the front, "I have known for a long time, since I am the one who has possessed this powers for many millenniums. I have seen planets and cosmos and galaxies change, I have fought off aliens, and attacking soul bearers who have turned evil in the face of power. My powers are sharp and I am the captain of this team, whether you guys like it or not."

"I think we all came to an agreement that since Aphrodite knew more, she could be our mentor," Pj smiled, "So, any questions?"

"Does my mom know I'm here?" Nico asked tentatively. She was missing her mom and planet Earth already. The window opposite her was now twinkling with stars and the Earth was but a tiny object in the distance. Had they really travelled so quickly?

"Yes, we alerted her that this was going to happen. I guess she chose not to tell you, make it a surprise, or what not."

Nico chuckled nervously, her blue eyes reflecting her anxiousness.

"Don't be afraid," Phil spoke softly, his icy blue eyes twinkling, "We'll be back at our base soon. There's a lot more that you need to learn."

Dan grinned, moving some hair from out of his face as he stared at Nico, "We aren't far now either."

"We'll be able to teach you all about morphing! How to control you powers! And how to bind two planet souls together." Chris said, his smirk showing his excitement.

"Naturally, Phil and I will teach the latter." Dan grinned.

"Ah yes, those two are always binding together." Harriette rolled her eyes, with a smile on her face.

"What's binding two planet souls together? What does it do?" Nico questioned curiously, and Phil smiled.

"It's when two planet souls fuse to become one. Anyone can do it, if they have the expertise. When two planets bind, the souls leave their bearer, and then the two souls form a whole new being, a whole new 'vessel' as Aphrodite calls it. This vessel now has the power of both souls, and have the properties of both planets. Quite an extraordinary feeling really." Phil explained, Dan nodding in agreement.

"We're close." Aphrodite called from the front, and everyone looked out the windows. Nico gasped as she saw what she was heading towards.

A magnificent white building lay ahead. Tall towers and sculptures decked the building, and twinkling lights decked the run way they landed on. It was only once they came close, that Nico realised the twinkling lights were actually clusters of what looked like miniature stars.

"Pretty, huh? I created them." Quince grinned, it's one of my powers. Small but effective. Of course, in dangerous circumstances they come out red, hot and poisonous,"

Nico gulped.

"But these are completely harmless, they help in missions where there isn't any light. I just create a ton of these. I like to call them my tiny galaxies."

Nico smiled, and watched as their capsule landed onto the white runway. Once they landed, everyone unbuckled their seatbelts, and Aphrodite opened up the door to get out.

"Wait! How are we supposed to breathe!" Nico shouted, as Aphrodite and Harriette started to walk out.

"We take on human forms, yes, but our souls give us the ability to breathe anywhere in the universe or galaxies." Pj explained, and Nico sighed in relief.

Skye and Quince chuckled, and walked out with Nico after Dan, Phil, Pj and Chris had gotten off the capsule.

Up ahead, was the tall building that Nico had seen from the capsule, but it looked even bigger now! Tall towers that all shone different colours, some light blue, some green, some golden, some silver, all of them had different planets etched into the design, and she guessed each of them belonged to a different soul. Nico saw one that was decked in blue and green, and she saw Earth sketched into the design. She smiled as she looked up at it, "Did my mother once stay here?"

"Oh yes, for many, many years. She was the protector of Earth for a long time, until on one mission she met your father. And she decided to stay." Harriette said, as she walked up to the huge white door that entered into the building.

"Welcome, to Casa de Cosmo!" Skye grinned, and he ran up to open the doors into the building.

 **Author's Note!**

 **Hello people that decide to read this. This chapter turned out longer than I expected and took me longer than I expected to write! I hope you all enjoy it, and that it isn't too crappy. Once my pal reads this, I shall wait a week before uploading a next one. Go check out little-miss-patient and her story guys, because that is where I got the inspiration for the character Nico in this story. Until next time, guys!**


	2. Chapter 2

Skye ran up and opened the doors to reveal a massive hallway. A beautiful fountain, cascading with what looked like water, until Nico realised it to be more of Quince's tiny galaxies flowing throughout the structure. Skye grinned at Nico, and walked up to it. He cupped the mixture into his hands, and then dropped it all over himself. Quince clapped as Skye lifted up into the air on his blue gas cloud, and it seemed to rain the little galaxies.

"Wow, impressive." Nico smiled, and Skye grinned.

"It's quite easy once you get used it. When Quince and I bind together, we can make it rain these things everywhere! It comes in handy sometimes!" He said, floating back down to the ground.

"If you think that's impressive, wait until you see the actual process of binding souls." Dan grinned, and Phil smiled softly at her.

"When can we start teaching her stuff, Dite." Harriette said, looking up to Aphrodite. Dite was Harriette's nickname for Aphrodite, and only she was allowed to use it.

"Since it's not too late, we could start today." Aphrodite shrugged.

"Yes!" Pj cried happily, rubbing his hands together as he started walking, "Follow me, everyone!"

"Pj has been planning this for ages, changed a whole section of his room to prepare to teach you when you arrived." Chris said, following after Pj.

Nico raised her eyebrows, and followed as well.

They soon reached a tall green door, with a picture of Jupiter in the design. Pj's eye's shone a bright green, the light illuminating the planet, and the door faded away, and the group quickly all stepped into Pj's room.

"Can you guys all do that?" Nico asked, a bit nervous after seeing someone's eye's literally light up and open a door by doing so.

"Oh yeah, that's how we all get into our rooms. It's like having a key, but it's more secure." Chris explained, and Nico looked up at the doors in awe. This kind of magical intergalactic power was most certainly, 'out of this world', so to speak. She chuckled to herself at the pun.

"Our magic is out of this world, huh Nico? That is such a terribly funny pun." Pj grinned at her, and lead them over to a section of the room that was full of information for Nico to take in. Newspaper articles were pinned up on a board, with a video projector set next to it. There was an area with some beds and pillows, which Nico guessed was probably where Pj slept. There were even holograms and suits of armour and protective gear in another area.

"I split up this area into different sections! As you can see, over here," Pj pointed at the articles and newspaper trimmings, "This is all about the history and more, educational side of the Solar Souls. Some are my own accounts of missions we have been on, some are even human's interpretations of our arrivals on Earth! Some of them are rather interesting to read. Over here," He pointed at the hologram projections and protective suits, "Are the things we will be testing out. The hologram can show many different souls and their natural forms, for example, Dan, go place your hand on the scanner!"

Dan, who looked apprehensive at first, walked over to the hologram, and placed his hand on the scanner. Suddenly a blue light trailed up and down Dan, focusing mainly on his forehead, and it soon stopped.

The hologram seemed to turn off for a second, making Dan step back in confusion, and soon it lit up again. Dan gasped as he looked up to see the hologram had changed. It looked like him, but, it was different! This version of Dan had cracks etched all over him, with lava seeping through them. His hair seemed to be engulfed in flames, and his eyes were a dark crimson. At the top of his forehead, seemed to be a miniature version of Mars.

"That's… Fucking terrifying but amazing, Pj how did you do that?!" Dan said, his voice seemed to rattle with both fear and excitement.

"I have a few tricks up my sleeve. However, I will not go into details, for I can practically hear the questions buzzing in Nico's head." Pj turned to her.

He was most certainly right. Nico's mind was trying to get her head wrapped around this whole natural form thing. Why did Dan's natural soul look like that? Did all souls have natural forms? And what was up with the planet in the middle of their forehead? Was it there for a reason?

"Let me explain. This hologram shows what Dan looks like in his 'natural form'. Currently, we all possess the human body shape, but if Dan were to stop taking on the human form, this is what he'd look like." Pj looked towards Nico, as if asking for any questions.

"He looks scary." She said honestly.

Aphrodite laughed in the background, she had been so quiet that Nico had practically forgotten she was there, "Oh yes, many of us look scary when possessing our normal form. Dan, here, comes from a planet that is known for it's volcanoes, Dan has the benefit of being able to turn into a kind of volcanic rock substance, since his souls is derived from a rock planet. Of course, Mars is much to cold to produce real lava, but hey, we are 'magic', aren't we, Nico."

Nico seemed to tell that Aphrodite wasn't the one to really mess around, and Nico decided not to ever get on her bad side. Pj coughed nervously, and started to speak again, "Yes, so, we all possess normal forms. Since I am a gas planet, I will take on the properties that are more gas-like, so to speak. Skye, when he is in his natural form, takes on a blue gas form, almost as if he were a ghost!"

Skye nodded with a grin, "I would show you, but, I'm only just working on my morphing." He said, scratching the back of his neck nervously.

"Now, this section here, next to the gear and suits, we have an area specially designed for binding." Pj said excitedly.

Nico looked over at it in confusion. She didn't understand, why where there two beds and a load of cushions. Surely there must be some more to it.

"How does binding, work..." Nico asked, and Dan grinned, coughing as he grabbed Phil's hand and pulled him forward.

"Well well Nico we thought you'd never ask!" He exclaimed, the sarcasm piercing through his grin, "Now, when souls bind, the two souls bind together to form one. However, once the souls leave the bearer, or the vessel, it drains the vessel of all of it's life sources and gives it no reason to function, so it goes into a kind of sleep state. So as not to harm ourselves when we bind, we lay out cushions on the floor for our vessels to fall on so they don't get damaged, and we lay them to rest on the two beds." He explained, and Phil nodded along the way.

"Binding doesn't always work. It takes a lot of practice, and two souls can reject one another if they are not compatible." Phil added, and Dan nodded.

"Now, as you two are probably the most, how do I put it, 'experienced' at binding, would you care to show us how it works?" Pj said, and Dan grinned.

"Of course."

Everyone apart from Nico took a step back; she was soon pulled back by Quince and Skye. The two men took a step apart from each other, and their eyes locked on one another.

"Ready?" Phil said softly.

"When am I not?" He grinned, and he moved forward, grasping Phil's hand and pulling him forward. Phil laughed, pressing his forehead against Dan's, and soon two marks started to form on their foreheads that started to light up.

"Those are their planets. It's like the ones that show on our foreheads when we're in natural form." Quince explained, as the two lights from the foreheads became brighter, almost encasing them in the light.

Suddenly the two men were pushed backwards, making Nico gasp in surprise. A smoky gas seemed to pour out of their foreheads from the planets, and Nico stared at them, as she saw the bodies drop to the floor, almost lifeless, and watched the two clouds of gas, one blue and smoky, the other red and more hard, start to combine in the air, a brilliant light shining from both of them. The light started to shine purple, and it started to take on a more human like shape.

That's when it appeared. The light stopped, and a purple being stood there. It had short, dark red curly hair, a similar colour to Dan's, and piercing blue eyes, much like Phil's. It looked completely normal, apart from the skin colour, and the marking on it's forehead. It looked like the Ying and Yang symbol, but a blue and red version.

"We are Deimos." The being said. When it spoke, it seemed to be a combination of two voices.

"Well that's what Pj calls us." It said, the voice definitely sounded more like Dan.

"But you can call us Dil. Most people do." That voice sounded more like Phil.

"Well, this is Deimos. Or, Dil. Once two souls bind, they are no longer two souls, but one. So they go by a whole new name, take on a whole new vessel shape and what not. Obviously, the new vessel looks similar to it's combiners, but it's a whole different being."

Nico nodded to show her understanding, "Is he, always purple?"

"Oh no, I could change into a normal, more human-like shape, but since this is only to show the process of binding, there's not really any point." He said, this sounded like a new voice, one that combined both Dan and Phil. Nico was amazed.

"Pretty cool stuff, huh?" Harriette smiled, "I always want to bind with Aphrodite but she says no, because she thinks it's only for 'emergencies'." She said, and rolled her eyes with a grin.

"That's because it is only for emergencies." Aphrodite said.

"But I do it for fun." Dil said, with a grin. He was putting Dan and Phil's limp bodies onto the beds.

"Y'know, since you two both like to stay like that, maybe you should show us morphing when it comes to binding." Skye suggested.

"Yeah, that's a great idea. Pj, let me show her!" Dil grinned at Pj, who scratched his head.

"As long as you to want to, then go ahead. Then we should probably head back and start preparing stuff to eat." Pj said, and Dil clapped his hands.

"Well, it goes a little bit like this..." He said, and suddenly his body lit up again in a bright white light, his arms were raised out as he lifted slightly off the ground, and as quickly as he had started, he had finished.

He looked, normal, Nico thought. He had a mess of curly brown hair, and the same blue eyes. His body shape matched Dan and Phil's, meaning he was tall too. He just looked a lot like Dan and Phil.

"What's with the curly hair?" Nico asked.

"Dan has naturally curly hair." Chris said, and Dil blushed.

"Since that's done with, Harriette and I are going up to start preparing some food." Aphrodite said, and they all followed after them both, since they were all hungry.

Nico presumed that since these souls were from out of space, they must eat some kind of special space food, but rather the contrary, they were sat eating fish and chips.

As she started to dip her last chip into her ketchup, an alarm started to go off.

All the lights in the room started to flash a red as the siren blared.

"Already?!" Aphrodite cried out, and Pj ran over to a machine, and pressed a button which made a hologram show up. His face went pale, his eyes running over the message as he stared at it in shock.

"Guys, there are reports from Earth, that both Selene and Molly, apparently they're missing!"

"Selene and Molly?" Nico asked, confused and panic-stricken.

"The moon and the sun! They're gone!"

Authors Note : Okay so yep this chapter is hella long, and side note, I do get a lot of inspiration from Steven Universe so yeah. But oh no! The sun and the moon are gone shock horror what has happened such suspense much excitement lots of writing to do! Hope you enjoyed this chapter peeps! See y'all in the next one!


	3. Chapter 3

"The sun and the moon, they're gone!" Pj shouted, the panic in his voice as the red lights flashed and the sirens whirred.

"Everyone! Follow me now!" Aphrodite shouted, running out of the front room and down some hallways and passages until they reached a tall door a carving of Venus on the door. Her eyes shone a bright silver, and the door faded away and they all followed her in. She pressed a button on the wall, and the sirens stopped, but the red warning lights still remained.

She walked further into her room, and then stopped.

"Quince, do you think you could connect to their souls, try and figure out where they are?" Aphrodite said, and Quince looked nervous,

"I can only try.." He spoke quietly, and then placed his fingers on his temples as he scrunched his eyes shut in concentration.

"What's he doing?" Nico asked quietly.

"Quince has the power to kind of, tune into other souls, and see where they are, since his planet is the furthest out, and that was his way of communicating with other planets before he decided to join Aphrodite and her group of Solar Souls. He can see where souls are whenever he wishes too, which comes in handy when souls are lost." Skye explained.

"Then this mission shouldn't be so tough then, right?" Nico questioned.

"Not necessarily, sometimes souls are really too far out, and there are, ways to keep souls hidden and blocked from being seen by onlookers, such as Quince. He is only just getting used to-"

Pj was cut off by Quince looking up and shouting, "I can see her, Molly, I can see her!"

"Where is she, Quince?" Aphrodite asked in a rushed voice.

"She's out looking in The Solar System, she's coming up near Mars. She's shouting, and crying. She's... She's looking for Selene."

"Of course, Molly is the power house of the Solar System, obviously, with the deep connection she shares with Selene, she'd have been the first one to know of the trouble. If she's decided to abandon the sun, leave it to run itself, then something serious is going on."

Nico's head was running in circles, but she didn't think it was from too many thoughts, she felt tired, drained; as if something was sucking the life out of her.

"AgH!" Nico cried as she dropped to the floor on her knees. Screams and shouts filled her head, more sirens, more shouts, havoc, mayhem, _bedlam_. Fuzzy pictures started to come into shape, until she realised. It was Earth, Earth was in trouble.

"She must be tuning into her planet." Dil spoke, Dan and Phil were still binded together, and thought it was best to stay that way since they were going off on a mission.

"When a planet is in deep trouble, it drains the sources and energy from a soul to try and repair and help fix damage," Pj spoke quickly as he sunk down beside Nico, "Oh god, that does look terrible Nico. We'll fix this, okay." He said, and Nico nodded weakly as Pj helped her up.

"We need to go, and, like, _now_. She's hit the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. We better get going before she goes anywhere out where my solar view can reach." Quince said, and Harriette nodded.

"C'mon everyone, we need to get into the capsule now, hop to it!" Harriette shouted, and all of them ran out of the room and down to the hallway, where Harriette lead the way towards the space capsule, in which they all piled into it.

"Quince, I'm gonna need you up front, to direct Aphrodite and I to wherever Molly is." Harriette instructed, and Quince nodded as everyone got buckled up into their seats. Nico practically fell into hers, she felt so tired, but she was determined to help.

"Are you sure you don't wanna stay here and rest, Nico, you are basically being the central power house for your planet." Chris said, a concerned look on his face as he looked at Nico.

"I-I'm fine." She said shakily, and Chris didn't seem too convinced, but didn't say anything else on the matter.

The space capsule flew quite a distance, until Quince threw his arm out and shouted, "Up ahead! There she is!"

Halting to a stop, the crew all unbuckled themselves, and climbed carefully on top of the capsule.

"Molly!" Skye shouted out, and the figure up ahead turned to face them and moved forward.

Her skin was a tanned colour, her eyes a burnt brown. Flames and sparks seemed to be decked in her hair that was up in a bun. Stars and planets were etched all over her skin, and she seemed to be wearing a body suit that flickered like the dying embers of a fire. She looked just like the sun, and the etching of it on her forehead finished it all off.

"Skye?" She spoke, as she floated towards them, "Is that really you? The last time I saw you, you were in your natural form. So, this is the form you decide to take on, huh?" She said, her voice seemed more calm, but her wet cheeks and red eyes contradicted her neutral approach.

"Yeah. Molly, our alerts signal were triggered today, and it came through from Earth that the sun and the moon are missing. Do you know what's going on?"

Molly's face seemed to tighten as she took a sharp breath, "Selene has been taken." She said, she tried hard to keep her voice calm but the panic in her voice was eminent, "Usually when things like this happen, I can tune into a soul's signal, find out where they are and what's wrong, especially with Selene, but.." Her voice cracked as she got to the end and a tear slipped down her cheek, "I don't know where she is. I can't tune in with her, I can't see her, I can't find her. I c-can't.." Molly burst into tears, and Skye bit his lip as he held her up in his arms and hugged her,

"It's okay Molly, it'll be okay, we'll find her. I promise."

Molly nodded, and Nico's head started to spin. "We better get a move on, I can sense from here that Earth is not feeling too well." Molly said, and Pj nodded, all of them getting back in the capsule.

"Where do we go now?" Dil asked as they started off.

"Somewhere, anywhere, all we can do unless Quince picks something up." Aphrodite said from the front of the ship.

"If it's out of my reach, she's probably not in the Milky-Way Galaxy anymore. But even then… I should at least be able to pick _something_ up. At least..." Molly said quietly.

"Don't fret yourself about it too much, Molly, I'm sure everything will be fine." Pj said, trying to console her, but the apprehension wasn't so hard to hear in his voice.

Nico felt even weaker, but she tried to keep strong. She couldn't look weak in front of everyone, especially Molly, since she was this powerful sun beacon.

Quince's scream pierced through Nico's ears, and the capsule almost crashed into the side of an aestroid.

He fell to the floor onto his knees as he clutched his head, "She's in pain, so much pain, they're hurting her. They… They want her power, AGHHHH!" Quince screamed louder and Aphrodite stood up in panic as Skye ran over to him.

"Hey, hey Quince, bud, you need to calm down."

"They're hurting her so much, they want to use… Use her power to collide into our galaxy, and take it over." Quince managed to get out.

"I-I can see it..." Pj said, he was tuning into Vince's thoughts, "Oh god, three white dwarf stars, dead stars, their souls have turned evil. And they're out to cause havoc. They're… They're in the Andromeda Galaxy!" Pj shouted, and as soon as Aphrodite heard the destination, she was back down in her seat and she was off.

Skye helped Quince up into a seat, and Molly sat beside him, her hand placed on his forehead, where the etchings of Pluto seemed to appear in the surface.

"He's rather drained out. Whatever he connected to must have hurt him quite a bit." Molly said quietly.

Skye nodded, "He doesn't like seeing his friends get hurt, and it seems like whoever has taken Selene… Is hurting her..."

Molly's hair seemed to burn brighter, her eyes flickering as if a fire of anger and hatred had been set alight inside of her.

"I will kill them, I swear I will kill them." Molly whispered quietly, the anger in her voice terrifying.

Skye gulped, and nodded at her, "Okay."

"Sorry, I'm just… Angry."

"I can tell that much, just, don't stress too much. Whoever hurt her, we'll get them Molly. We promise you that."

Molly hummed in recognition, and then looked out the window. Quince's head was still in her lap, with her hand on it as she stared out of the window, as if she was in her own little world.

Skye decided to leave her to it, deciding it was best to just leave her to it. He looked over at Nico, who looked drained as ever.

"I wish I could help you," Molly spoke quietly, her eyes still staring blankly out the window, "But there's nothing I can do."

Nico looked up weakly, and coughed, "Hey, it's not your fault."

"It is, without me, your planet does not have proper light or energy or heat. Plants cannot photosynthesise properly to produce oxygen, people in poorer countries without any source of light will now be engulfed in dark, people will panic, systems will shut down. It is my fault."

Nico shifted her weight awkwardly, and scratched the back of her neck, "Well, like you said… Nothing you can do, right now anyways.."

Molly didn't say anything, and continued to stare out of the window.

Skye gave Nico a sad smile, and soon the capsule started to come to a halt.

"All out, all who can change into their natural form, are advised to do so." Aphrodite said.

Aphrodite, Harriette, Pj, Chris and Dil all got out before the rest. Molly helped Quince to get out, and Skye helped Nico up.

"You sure you can do this?" Skye said, his voice full of concern.

"Of course I can do this." Nico smiled up weakly up at him, her voice full of determination.

"Hmm..." Skye said, and helped her out the capsule, and up ahead were the souls, in their natural forms.

Aphrodite's skin was a deep silver, her shaved hair and silver eyes made her look fierce, and the glowing imprint of Venus on her forehead finished off her look. Harriette's skin was still tanned, but shone a light gold colour, very similar to her flowing golden locks. Pj looked like a slimmer, less muscular version of the Hulk, his screen a dark green colour, and his hair a floaty, curly mess of green. Chris' skin tone looked similar to Harriette's, but it was lighter. His hair seemed to be full of little asteroids, much similar to the one's that were in the rings on Saturn. Dil was the most impressive. He was noticeably bigger than the rest of the group, his curly hair now a light blue shade, and his body a purple, rock type texture. Quince looked the smallest, and his skin complexion was a mix of grey and light brown, his hair being of a similar colour. Of course, all of the souls had etchings of their planets on their forehead, and Dil had the mix of Mars and Venus on his forehead. Nico noticed that the gas planets took on a more gas texture, whereas the rock planets looked harder, and firmer.

"Wow." Nico managed to breath out.

"I guess it's my turn now, right?" Skye said, and shut his eyes.

He seemed to shine a bright white light, a blue gas moving around in the light as they all watched. A brighter white light shone, and down fell a small, gas figure that resembled the shape of the normal human body. The etching of Neptune on his forehead shone, and soon went back to normal as he moved forward.

"You're very, gassy, Skye." Dil grinned, and laughed.

"Hahah, very funny, smurf head."

"Hey!" He shouted back at him, and they both laughed together.

"You guys all look… So impressive..." Nico said, her speech slowed as she tried to catch her breath. She was growing increasingly weaker by the minute.

"Hey, do you wanna sit down?" Skye said, looking back at her.

"I d-don't feel so good..." She said, reaching her hand towards her head.

And that's when the ringing started.

Everything went black, and the last things she heard was the shout of Skye's voice calling for her.

Author's Note: Well well well, this was meant to be shorter, since it's a two part chapter-ish but yeahhh.

Hahhahah CLIFF HANGERS! Mwahahahha. This chapter is dedicated to little-miss-patient, hope you

enjoyed it ;) See ya next Saturday!


	4. Chapter 4

The ringing continued, it just wouldn't stop. She tried as hard as she could to open her eyes, but she felt so weak, so tired.

"Shit, what do we do?" Nico heard Skye say, his voice seemed to be full of panic and she could almost see the scared look on his face as she heard him speak.

"I-I don't know." Pj spoke, his voice seemed to be full of confusion, and his face was a pale white. For once, he didn't know the answers.

Nico knew that she had to get up somehow, but there was no way she was moving herself on her own. Even trying to think was hard enough, but then, it came to her!

Pj could tune in with her thoughts. All she had to do was think, right? That must work.

Trying her hardest, she filled her head with her own shouts of Pj's name, to try and get his attention.

She heard a gasp, and then Pj's voice. _Thank goodness,_ she thought, _I got through to him._

"What is it Pj?" Harriette said quietly.

"She's still alive, she's connected with my thoughts. Marvellous!"

 _Just get me up!_ She thought, she didn't want to be sitting out here whilst they were inside fighting dwarf stars, she had to go in with them.

"Are you sure you want to go in there, Nico?" Pj asked, his voice full of concern.

 _Yes!_ She thought, how could she make it any clearer.

"I'll carry you, I'm not much help without any equipment if I'm honest." Nico could almost hear him blushing in his voice. She felt herself being lifted, and she leant into the touch.

"Let's get going, we don't have much time. Skye, if the door is locked, we're gonna need you to drift through there to open it up. Understood?"

"Yes, ma'am." He grinned, and they all started to walk forward to the entrance.

"Do you think they have any CCTV?" Quince asked in a hushed voice.

"They have to resort to using a planet's soul to produce power, and they're old, forgotten souls as well, I don't think they're well equipped with resources." Pj said quietly, and Quince nodded.

To no surprise, the door was locked. Aphrodite nodded at Skye, and he seemed to turn into even more of a gas, if that was even possible. The pale blue figure slipped through the door as if he were a ghost, and there was a click, before the door swung open.

"Welcome to Casa de dead dick heads." Skye joked, and Dil chuckled.

"Shush, we don't know who can hear us!" Aphrodite spoke in a hushed voice, and they all followed in after her.

The building was dark, lit by only small flames that shone in different colours, some blue, some white, some red. The group walked as quietly as the could down the dark hallway. Harriette's face seemed to be rigid as if she was concentrating hard on something, until suddenly she threw her arm out.

"Stop!" She said in a hush whisper, "There are guards around there, I can hear them."

Aphrodite looked around the corner and nodded, "Wow, what would we do without your super hearing, huh?" She grinned, and Harriette blushed with a smile.

"I've got this." Skye said, and pulled out some headphones.

"Are you insane?!" Chris said quietly, "You can't tackle all of them on your own!"

"Watch me." He said quietly, as he put the headphones in and hit play.

Chris tried to pull him back, but his hand just slipped right through him, leaving him with his mouth gaped open as he watched his friend walk off.

"He's insane." Chris said, in a quiet and astonished voice.

"Insane, but cunning. Watch." Quince said, and they all looked around the corner.

Skye's moves all seemed in time, like his kicks and ducks and dives were all to a beat.

Swooping down low, his leg darkened as it hardened so he could trip up a guard, and then he put his hand on the guards forehead, the symbol of a star appearing on the surface.

"Adios." He whispered, as the guards body seemed to fade apart, and the shards of the stars soul remained in his hand. Encasing them in a blue gas, he blew it, and the shards disappeared. They would now reside on Neptune, where the souls would not be able to cause harm.

And he just continued, fighting these guards who just couldn't seem to get him. Whenever they tried to shoot him, the bullet would just stop in the middle of the gas, turn around inside of him, and shoot back at them, causing Skye to encase their souls too.

Soon, they were all gone. Pulling the headphones out of his ears, he grinned, "I always do love fighting to songs."

"I have to admit, that was pretty impressive." Dil grinned, and Skye bowed.

"I know, I know, I'm amazing."

Dil, Chris and Pj all laughed as Aphrodite rolled her eyes, "Let's get moving, we don't have much time."

They nodded, and all started moving forward. The corridors were long, and the suspension seemed to loom over them in the darkness.

"How the fuck did they get in!"

Sirius paced the room as Procyon bit his finger nails.

"I don't know, but the alerts are going off. Guards are down. I think… It's them."

"Well who else would it be?" Feige said, his dark hollow eyes looking watching Sirius pace.

"I-I told you… They would come..." A quiet voice came from behind them. Behind the bars, Selene had a small smile on her pale face. All the energy being drained from her had made her eyes gloss over white, and the light in the etching of her planet was fading. But she wasn't giving up.

"They'll find me, you watch." She said, her voice weak, but determinate.

"Oh shut up you, your little pals will be finished off before they can reach you." He said, banging on the bars that secured her in. With a nod of his head, Selene shrieked as a surge of electricity went through her.

The conversation that Harriette was overhearing made her cringe, and she stopped the group. Of course, they had all heard that scream and Molly was not at all pleased with stopping.

"No, we go now! I'll crush them all. I will!" She whispered furiously, but Harriette held her back.

"Molly, no, we have to be careful here! They may be dead souls, but they're evil and powerful. They won't stop at anything!" She said in a hushed whisper.

"Harriette is right. We need to be careful here," Pj said quietly, holding up a weak Nico, "I suggest Dil and Chris go first as distractions, and then Skye, you go in there and get Selene out."

They all nodded, and slowly moved forward.

Dil and Chris nodded at eachother, and walked in. Chris' asteroids seemed to spread as a cover in front of him, as if it was a shield. Dil seemed as hard as rock. Pj just hoped it would be enough.

"Well well, Selene was right." Sirius said, as he stopped pacing.

"The Solar Shits have come to save her." Procyon said, his voice quiet but full of hatred.

"Damn right," Dil said, "And we're not leaving without her either!"

"Oh look, it's the two boyfriends binded together. Pathetic." Feige spat at him, and Dil clenched his fist.

"Don't you dare talk about me like that!" His fists were by his sides, but it took all of his self control not to punch the daylights out of him.

"C'mon, this can go down the easy way, or the hard way. Just give her to us, or we're going to have to encase you all." Chris said, the asteroids still floating around in front of him. They seemed to form rings around his body, mimicking the real look of Saturn.

"Where are the rest of you?" Procyon said, avoiding his question.

"None of your goddamn business." Dil replied.

"Oh really, well it's none of your 'goddamn business' when we strip Selene of all of her energy sources!"

"NO!" There was a shout from behind them, and none of them could stop Molly from raging in, and grabbing Procyon by the throat.

That's when the fight broke out.

Sirius lunged forward to protect Procyon, but Chris grabbed him. Dil headed right for Feige, and they ended up battling out.

Asteroids and sparks and magma shot across at eachother as the two sides fought. Angry shouts and screams filled the room as both sides were hit and attacked.

Aphrodite nodded at Skye, and he slipped in past through the fighting souls, and up to the bars.

"I'm here to help." Skye whispered quickly, but Selene's warnings were too late as Skye tried to get through the bar.

A sizzling noise and Selene's screams filled the room as Skye's eyes rolled back, as he fell backwards. Nico managed to open her eyes, only in time to see Skye's body dissolve, the shards lifting up in a ball of gas before disappearing.

"Oh gods." Quince whispered, bringing his hand up to his mouth as tears filled his eyes.

"We're going in..." Nico managed to whisper out, as Pj looked at her in surprise and fear.

"Are you crazy? You'll be killed out there!" Pj said quietly.

"Take me in there now. I have to help my friends."

"She's right. There's no other way. There's no side winning in this, both are equally as strong and as hurt. And if.. If Skye couldn't even get through the bars… How will we succeed without all of us helping?" Aphrodite said.

"Aphrodite, myself and Harriette will go out and help the others. Pj, you go see if you can find a way to shut off the electricity, okay?" Quince said, and the rest nodded.

And the others ran off into the midst of the attacks, each fighting with their own unique weapons as they fought the evil souls.

Chris soon fell back, and Quince gasped in shock as he saw the sharp sword pierced into his abdomen.

"I'm g-gonna be okay, okay?" He said, coughing up blood as Quince stood in shock. "G-go fight them, okay? Send them off to your planet, s-so they can't hurt anyone else." He said, as the asteroids seemed to pile up underneath, and lift him up as his head fell back. Other asteroids surrounded the stab wound as he was lifted out of the room.

Quince, now filled with rage, took the left over sword, and charged into the fight. Sparks flew out of him, his tiny galaxies hot red as he shot them at the enemy.

Pj gulped as he looked down at Nico, who looked weakly up at him, "We got this, d-don't worry." Nico said, and Pj nodded, wiping the tears from his eyes. He'd just seen two of his best friends get seriously harmed, but he knew if he didn't act now, it would only get worse.

Running as fast as he could, he slipped past the bedlam of the fight, and reached the bars where Selene was captured. Pure white tears slipped down her dark, yet pale face.

"P-please be careful." She whispered, and Pj nodded, "Of course."

That's when the ringing started again. This couldn't happen, not now. Not now. Pj felt Nico fall weak in his arms again, and gulped.

"Nico, Nico c'mon. No, not now. Now when we're so close."

Nico fell limp in his arms, and tears slipped down his face as he tried to feel for a heartbeat.

"Pj, she'll be okay. You just need to help me out of here, do you understand, Pj."

Pj wiped the tears from his eyes as he nodded, and laid Nico down. He sniffed, and started to look for any sign of something to break down the electric forcefield.

He looked, and he looked, the fight behind him only getting worse as he tried to focus his attention on his task, and not on the cries of Quince, or the shouts of Dil. He knew that if Dil got hurt, that would mean two of his friends would get hurt, and he didn't think he could bare that.

Nico's head seemed to be full. Her eyes were engulfed in light, and instead of a ringing in her head, there was a voice. It sounded like her mother.

"You can do this, Nicolette. You are strong. You can help. Fight through this."

Tears seemed to slip down her cheeks, but yet, she couldn't feel them becoming damp.

"B-but I can't… I'm too weak..." She replied.

"I'll help you." Her mother responded quietly, and that's when the vines and shrubs started to appear.

All around her, shrubs and leaves cocooned around her, and green vines seemed to attach to the bars, scorching at the electricity, but they only grew further and faster. Pj gasped in shock as he saw the sights, and watched as the vines pulled off the bars. Before they could fall on Pj, shrubbery surrounded him, and protected him as the bars fell to the floor.

The noise made the group stop fighting, and looked to see Selene pulling off the restraints from herself. As she walked past, her hands touched over the bars and the shrubs, and made them all tun to star dust. Nico laid on the floor in the fetus position, and Pj ran over to her and brought her into his arms as he watched Selene carefully.

Dil had a gash on his face, and Quince's nose was bleeding. Harriette was leaning on Aphrodite's side, as Aphrodite held her arm where it was bleeding. The three white dwarf star souls had taken quite a beating too, but Selene grabbed Sirius from the back, placing her hand on his forehead, and his body dissolved, leaving the shards of his soul remains. Selene tapped her head down, the shards being encased in a silver white light, and they soon disappeared.

Procyon and Feige gulped, knowing their fate would be the same, but did not bother to put up a fight. They knew they would lose.

"Quince, Dil, would you mind doing the honors." Selene asked quietly, her voice smooth and silky, but cold with the hatred she felt towards the souls who had hurt her friends.

"My pleasure." Dil said quietly, as Quince nodded, and they stood forward. Dil grabbed Feige, and an evil grin spread across his face, "Don't you dare make fun of my boyfriend again." Dil spoke, but the voice sounded more like Dan's as he pressed his hand to his forehead. As the shards suspended in the air, Dil spoke again, but this time it sounded more like Phil, "Can I have him?"

"Of course." He responded, the voice now more like Dan's. The shards were then encased in a light blue light, and when Dil's eye's shone blue, the shards disappeared.

"Well it's not weird at all seeing you talk to yourself." Harriette said weakly with a chuckle.

Quince did the same to Procyon, and sent the shards of his soul to reside on Pluto for the rest of time.

Molly walked forward to Selene, her eyes burning a soft orange as Selene smiled at her.

"My love, I've missed you so much." She said, her voice cracking as she held back tears, and the two hugged each other close.

"Did they hurt you?" Molly asked, her eyes full of tears.

"Only a little, but who cares." She says, taking Molly's hand in her own.

"I do!" She replied, and kissed her softly.

"OTP." Dil whispered, and Quince shoved him and whispered 'Shhh!'

After they finished hugging, Molly turned to them, "Thank you, thank you so much."

"It's not a problem." Dil said softly, and Quince smiled.

"We best get back, before she has to retreat back to Earth's core to regenerate her health." Selene said quietly, and Molly nodded. They looked at one another and smiled as they held hands. They were soon engulfed in white light, and disappeared back to their original planets.

Pj, holding Nico in his arms, walked over and smiled sadly.

"I think it will be a while before we see Skye… Or Chris… Again..." He said quietly.

"Wait, what?" Dil asked, looking at him, "What do you mean?"

"Didn't you see, Chris… He had a knife through him, I saw it happen. That's why I encased Procyon's soul."

"Oh my god..." Aphrodite whispered, as Harriette looked down.

"C'mon," Pj said, picking up Nico as he headed for the door, "Lets get back, all of us are pretty hurt or tired. We need to patch ourselves up."

No one disagreed as they all headed back out to the capsule they had arrived in. The group didn't feel so lively or whole, what with Skye and Chris badly hurt, and Nico recovering, no one felt in the mood to start any conversation.

Once they got back, everyone dispersed off to their different rooms, to get some rest and to sort out their injuries. Pj stayed with Nico, to be there for her once she awoke. Dil decided not to unbind, after what had happened, the pair wanted to be there for one another as best as they could. Aphrodite and Harriette walked together to help patch each other up.

Pj gave Quince a sad smile as he sat at the windowsill, waiting for his friends to return. It had been a long, and hard day for him, he had seen his friends get badly hurt, and he couldn't do anything to help them. Sniffing, he wiped the tears from his cheeks, and he stared out the window, watching the comets and the stars fly past. He decided to leave a trail of his mini galaxies leading up to the house, to guide them home.

All he had to do now, was wait.

 **Author's Note: Ahhhahah so Selene is back safe but at what price. So I may or may not have referenced Steven Universe in here but c'mon, Ruby and Sapphire, Molly and Selene, can you see where I'm getting at here. But yeah, sorry this was late. If I upload late this month/next month it's because exams and the end of school are coming up so joy... But yeah, this was fun to write! See y'all in the next one!**


	5. Chapter 5

It had been a week, and their friends had still not returned.

Nico had recovered fully, and Pj had been teaching her things whilst they had nothing else to do but wait. Dil had shown her what it looked like when two souls broke their bind just a few days ago.

"So, when the two souls unbind, it doesn't really matter where they are, since their souls will naturally return to their bearer. But it's just easier and less complicated to be closer to the vessels." Pj explained as Nico nodded, slowly sipping from a juice box she had found in the fridge.

"God, I'll never get over how weird it feels to see yourself looking practically dead." Dil said, looking down at the two beds where Dan and Phil's 'vessels' laid.

"It is a bit spooky." Nico agreed, and watched them as they stepped forward.

It all happened very quickly, and yet, time seemed to slow down. There was a bright white light surrounding Dil, and he seemed to split in half and then fall apart, leaving two different coloured orbs of gas and rock suspended in the air. The blue one was a gas, the red one seemed to be filled with rocks. Slowly, they floated down upon the two vessels on the bed, and each of the orbs seemed to enter through the forehead. With a final glow, the unbinding was complete.

Dan seemed to sit up quite quickly, and stretch, whereas Phil yawned and sat up slowly.

"This tires me out, however Dan seems to get some sort of kick out of it." Phil said, staring over at him. Dan chuckled lightly, and stood up.

"God, I'm starving. It's a bit weird having to share a stomach with someone else." Dan stated, and headed towards the door.

Phil rolled his eyes as he watched him leave, "So, that must've looked, weird, huh?" Phil looked down at Nico who was sat on one of the cushions.

"Just a bit," Nico replied, and smiled, "But it's pretty fucking cool. I can't wait to learn all this soul stuff."

Phil grinned, as did Pj, "You will, in time, I'll be sure to teach you."

Nico awoke soon enough, and stretched. Her room was very boring, and exactly what she imagined it to be when she first arrived. As she came to her senses, there was a part of her who hoped for Skye and Chris to be back, so the house would be back to normal. But as she headed downstairs in a dressing gown and slippers she had found in her room, she could sense that they were still not back. With a sigh, she got herself an apple to eat before heading to Pj's room. She wanted to know more about where her friends had gone, and how long it'd be before they were back.

Her hands barely touched the door before it disappeared and let her in, "I could sense you wanted questions answered." Pj said as she walked in. He was sat on one of the cushions they used for binding. His hair was messier than usual, his eyes had bags underneath them; he looked as if he hadn't slept all night.

"You're right, by the way, I haven't slept. I knew you were thinking it, I'm just… Worried, don't fret yourself about me, though, there are questions to be answered." He said, trying to sound at least a little enthusiastic as he spoke. Tapping the pillow next to him, Nico knew that he wanted her to sit next to him, and so she did.

"Where have Chris and Skye gone, am I right in saying that is your question?"

Nico nodded, and Pj nodded as well in understanding, "Well, when souls are hurt or damaged to a point where their vessels or souls themselves cannot repair it, they have to return to their original place of residence, to regenerate and fix themselves up, in a way. They have not been killed, since then the shards of their souls would degrade into dust in front of our eyes. However, we know that both Skye and Chris were carted back of to their planets."

"How comes Skye kind of, disintegrated, and Chris was carried off?" Nico asked, playing with the soft tassels etched onto the side of the cushion.

"The difference between both Skye and Chris' situations, were that Skye was vaporised, in a sense, by the electric field. We call it 'electric field' but of course, out here, we have more, advanced, weaponry and defence systems in place, that even old souls can get a hold of. To my knowledge, I can only guess they implemented that barrier with a power that causes souls to retract into themselves, and to break apart from their vessel. This causes the soul to have to beam itself back to it's home planet to fix itself and it's vessel,"

Nico's eyes were wide in shock, and she took a bite of her apple as she listened to Pj explain.

"With Chris, he had a sword pierced through his stomach, that's obviously gonna cause damage. But his situation was not so serious for him to have to retreat back into his soul. Some people do, but that is because they may not be as strong. But Chris is strong, very strong. He may act the fool, but he is incredibly strong,"

There were tears in Pj's eyes, and Nico gulped, not knowing what to do. She wasn't the best when it came to emotional support.

"Sorry," He sniffed, "Chris is just a… close friend… Anyhow, where was I, oh yes. So Chris didn't have to retreat into his soul, but he'll need the energy source from the core of his planet to help rebuild both his vessel and soul to maximum efficiency. Many souls, once in a while, sometimes go back to their home planet for a 'top up', but that's only really after hefty missions and such, where energy has been burnt a considerable amount."

Nico nodded in understanding, and finished off her apple. Her eyebrows furrowed as she thought about something Pj had just explained, "How comes I couldn't go back to Earth to 'feed off it's power source' when I was drained out?"

"Ahh, I knew you'd ask that. Now, in your situation, your original planet was being stripped off it's sources, which is the reason why you were so drained out. _You_ were being used as the energy source for you planet, rather than vice versa, which is how it usually is."

"Ohh," she said, taking another bite of her apple as she let what he was saying sink in, "So, when do you think they'll be back?"

"That is not for us to really say, it's all up to the soul and their bearer and when they're ready to come back. I mean, after what we've all been through, it's not a surprise..." He wandered off slightly with his words, as if thinking of something.

"What do you mean?" She asked, furrowing her eyebrows, "All you guys have been through, aren't these missions common to you?"

"Well, yes, but us souls have been alive for many many years, for as long as the universe has been around. We have seen lots of things, many downfalls, many accomplishments. But, that's for another day, for now, we wait for our friends to get back." He said, smiling as he rubbed her shoulder.

She nodded, and threw the apple in the trash can.

They both stood up, and Nico helped him clear up some stuff on his desks as they had got pretty untidy. Different books on regeneration and sheets from various sources scattered the table, and she tried her best to clear them up. Pj chewed on his lip anxiously as he piled the books up, or put them onto bookshelves dotted around his room.

As Nico was picking up a book entitled 'New Beginnings, A History of The Universe', there was a load scream from upstairs.

Quick as a flash, both of them ran towards the scream. Dan and Phil stood there, Dan's hair was a curly mess and he was wearing only his pyjama bottoms, and Phil was in a shirt and some pyjama shorts. Nico did not want to know what they had been up to, since she couldn't tell whether the sweat on Dan's chest was from running down the stairs, or from them doing the frick frack. She supposed it was the latter and chuckled to herself.

"Nice 'bed' hair, Dan." She grinned at Dan, and he blushed bright red as Quince came running up to them.

"What on earth is going on!?" Aphrodite called from the stairs, Harriette having a loose arm draped around her waist as they stood together.

"They're… They're ba-"

Quince barely finished his sentence before the door burst open, "Honey! We're home!" Chris shouted, a wide grin on his face.

Skye and Chris both walked in, seconds before being attacked with hugs from Quince and Pj. Dan smiled at Phil, and he smiled back, and both of them walked over to their friends. Tears were in both Skye and Quince's eyes as they hugged, "Don't worry, I'm okay, I'm okay!" Skye reassured him, but that didn't stop Quince from holding onto him tightly.

"What took you both so long?" Aphrodite asked the question everyone was thinking.

"Oh okay, so we'll just let you get stabbed, or vaporised to the point where you can nearly die, and we'll just give you a couple of days to recover." Chris said, staring up at her as the two girls came down the stairs.

"You're usually back rather fast, Chris, so she does have a point." Pj said.

"I was being a nice friend, okay? Skye hadn't reformed yet by the time I was recovered, and I didn't really want to go back on my own, or leave him to have to do the same. I'm sorry about that." He said, his eyebrows furrowing. He didn't understand why they had to be so negative all of a sudden.

"We were all worried Chris, that's all," Nico said, feeling awkward after the mood had dramatically dropped, "We're glad you two are safe." The rest of the group nodded, and Aphrodite and Harriette went back upstairs as the rest decided to catch up.

Deciding to try and lighten the mood, Dan tried to use one of his chat up lines on Phil.

"Hey, hey Phil."

"What?" He asked, turning to face him.

"I love Uranus." He smirked, batting his eyelids as he stared at him.

Phil didn't laugh as he kept a straight face, and walked off in the direction of the kitchen.

"What? What did I do?" Dan said, as the rest of the group sniggered.

Phil soon came back, holding a glass of water. Dan eyed it warily.

"Hey, hey Dan." Phil said, mimicking his voice.

"What…?" He said apprehensively.

Phil chucked the cold glass of water at him, and Dan gasped for breath as the group burst out laughing.

"I got you some water, you sounded thirsty."

Skye laughed even harder, wiping tears from his eyes, "Good one, Phil."

Phil grinned, putting the glass on the table as he sat down. Dan laughed along with them, and he soon went to get a towel to wash his hair. "So, Skye, Chris, it's been a while. How are you two?"

Chris shrugged, "Same old, really, I regenerated, and waited. Pretty boring, but I did see some interesting things."

"Like what?" Phil asked curiously, as Dan came back, his hair starting to curl as he grumbled to himself. He hated his 'hobbit hair'.

"Shooting stars, some souls flying past, I did see something, suspicious." Chris said, and furrowed his eyebrows again.

"Chris said he saw a kind of crack, near my planet. He said it flickered and he could hear voices coming from it." Skye explained.

"For real?" Quince asked, pulling up a seat.

"Yeah, I mean I kind of shrugged it off, like, I was becoming paranoid from stressing about Skye and when he was gonna come back. I don't know." He said, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Dude, if you're worried about it, we should tell Aphrodite and we can go check it out?" Dan said, sitting next to Phil as they all listened closely.

"I'm not worried." He snapped back quickly.

"Chris, you're white as a sheet, _something_ is up." Pj said, placing a hand on his arm.

"I guess if it looked like a crack in space, that's pretty significant, right? I remember a friend from back at home talking about this show, Doctor Who once, and this girl kept on seeing this crack, and it turned out to be a crack in space and time." Nico chipped in.

"Yeah, but that's a sci-fi show." Pj said, "But, I guess no one on Earth would think we were living in a sci-fi world. So maybe you have a point." Pj pointed out, and Nico grinned.

"We'll talk to Aphrodite about it later, but for now, let's all just chill. Maybe put on a movie, eat some snacks, have some fun? Sound like a plan?" Phil suggested and everyone nodded, all of them filing through into the front room.

However much he tried, though, Chris couldn't seem to get the sound of the voices out of his head. They sounded, familiar...

 **Authors Note:** **What is this crack what is going on ahahah I finally have plot ideas it's great I can't wait. Sorry it took me two weeks! Ahhh, I've been so busy and by busy I mean I've been procrastinating. This chapter is honestly so boring but it's full of plot stuff ahahah. Do with this as you please. See you in the next one!**


	6. Chapter 6

_**Author's Note: Hah hey guys! Yeah, I'm doing an AN at the beginning! Cool, huh? Okay, so I just wanted to put a warning for a trigger warning for homophobic/transphobic language at one point. It's not anything really major, but hey, there's nothing like being careful. Hope you all enjoy the chapter, I'll see you in the next one!**_

Aphrodite and Harriette sat on the bed, looking up at the flickering hologram in front of them.

"When will I get to at least talk to her?! I need to know she's okay!" The voice sounded from the hologram. Harriette looked at Aphrodite nervously, not knowing what to say.

"She's doing very well, we just don't want to upset her. We can't have her running back off to Earth now, not now..." Aphrodite said cautiously.

"Don't you think this is upsetting me? My daughter just disappears, leaves, I didn't even give her a proper goodbye!" The voice cried out.

Harriette chewed her lip nervously, fumbling with her words as she spoke, "All in good time, all in good time! She has lots to learn, you'll see her when she's ready."

"Well hurry up then." The voice spat spitefully, and Harriette and Aphrodite both gulped as the hologram turned off.

"I forgot how forceful she can get when she's upset." Harriette said, shivering as chills ran down her back. She didn't like seeing her friends upset.

"Hey, Aphrodite, Harriette, could you come down a second? We need to discuss some things!" A voice that sounded like Phil's shouted from downstairs.

"C'mon, Dite." Harriette smiled at her, and helped her up. They both walked downstairs together, and joined the group at a long table, Chris sitting at the top. He didn't look very comfortable, as if he didn't want to be there.

"What's going on?" Aphrodite asked, eyeing the table up and down. No one gave her an answer, so Harriette to sit down, and Aphrodite did the same.

"Now, Chris, tell Aphrodite and Harriette what you saw." Phil said calmly, his voice low and soft.

Chris coughed, and looked down towards Aphrodite and Harriette; Harriette gave him a comforting smile, as if she was trying to say it's okay.

"Well, when I went to go watch over Skye, I, I kind of saw this crack in space. Not, a literal one, it kind of was just this distorted patch of stars that kind of look like they were in a glitched game. They were in an oval shape, occasionally flickering. It looked like some kind of hole, or something."

"Tell them about the voices." Pj urged him on.

"Voices?" Aphrodite said, slightly alarmed. She didn't like the sound of this.

"Well, yeah. I heard voices. Sometimes, I, I heard things like, Quince's voice, but it sounded far off, I mainly heard…. Uhhh..." He said, trailing off anxiously.

They all looked at him expectantly.

"I, I heard people, they… The voices were unfamiliar, but… They used Skye's… Birthname." He said, with a gulp.

"You didn't tell me that!" Skye's voice cried from the end of the table, his chair falling back from the force on which he had stood up. "What do you mean they used that name? Who the fuck are they! Barely anyone knows that name!" The anger in his voice was present, and Nico looked at him, a confused expression on her face as Quince tried to calm him down.

"Skye, Skye calm down! The sooner we let Chris finish, the sooner you can go investigate, okay?"

Skye huffed, picking up his chair and sitting back down.

Nico looked towards Pj, seeing if he would explain, but he shook his head, and nodded his head down at her, as if to say he would explain it to her later, not now.

"You can't be serious, Chris? If you're telling the truth..." Aphrodite spoke, her voice low. She sounded spooked out.

"Why would I lie about this?!" Chris retorted, and Aphrodite bowed her head.

"We leave now, Dan, Nico, Pj, Skye, you're all coming with me."

"Damn right I am." Skye's voice was full of rage.

"I want to come, I… I can help." Chris stood up, as if to prove his strength.

"Chris, you seem a bit freaked out, how about you sit this one out? Okay? We'll be okay." Aphrodite said, looking towards him.

Chris sat back down, a bit disheartened, and Phil put his hand on his shoulder.

"You'll be okay here?" Dan asked Phil as he stood up to get ready to leave.

"Of course I will, I'll look after Chris," Phil smiled up at him, "Don't miss me too much." He winked up at him.

Dan chuckled lightly, placing a kiss on his forehead, "You dork, I'll be back soon."

Harriette squeezed Aphrodite's hand before she left, "Be safe."

"When am I not?" She grinned.

Harriette gave her a look, and Aphrodite kissed her cheek, "I'll be fine, this shouldn't take long, we're just gonna check it out."

Harriette nodded, and then Aphrodite turned to face her little team. Nico stood next to Pj, as Dan walked over, resting an arm on Skye's shoulder. Skye managed to give him a smile as he ruffled his hair. "Ready?"

"When are we not." Skye responded, and Aphrodite grinned.

"Let's go."

They were off and out into the space capsule in a matter of minutes. Quince waved from the window, watching as the capsule left to go to Neptune, where the crack in space had last been seen.

"Up ahead, you can see it. It does look like a glitch in a video game, how odd." Dan called out, and Aphrodite landed the capsule carefully on the surface of Neptune. Blue clouds of dust wafted around them, and they all exited the capsule.

"Home sweet home." Skye muttered sarcastically as they all stood on the surface.

"How do we get over to it?" Nico asked, furrowing her eyebrows.

"Like this." Skye said, and walked. As he reached the edge, he hopped. Nico reached out to grab him, but he kind of just floated there. Grinning, he walked over towards the patch of glitched stars.

"It's easy, you just have to hop off, other wise you'll naturally be pulled to the planet. Planets that have souls attached to them have selective gravitational pulls to other souls, regardless of what soul they have." Pj explained, and Nico nodded.

She walked forward, and as she reached the edge, she jumped, and floated. Suspended in mid-space, she laughed, the feeling unnatural to her. As she walked, it felt as if she was walking on nothing, which to her, she guessed she was technically walking on nothing.

The others joined them near the crack. When they were closer, it seemed a lot bigger. It was big enough for them to walk through.

"Who goes first?" Dan asks.

"I will." Aphrodite says, and no one protests as she walks forward. Closing her eyes, she walks forward, and it looks as if she is engulfed by black light.

"Woah," Skye breathed out quietly, "I wanna try!" He says, and practically jumps in.

Dan, Nico and Pj soon follow suit, and as they go in, they see Skye, looking white as a sheet.

"What's going on?" Nico asks, as she looked at all the others, staring at a small child who sat on the planet that Nico guessed to be Neptune.

"That's me." Skye says, his voice blank as he stared.

Pj looked around, wide eyed., "We've gone back in time."

"No shit, Sherlock." Dan said quietly.

"Let's get moving, shall we? We'll start with Pluto." Aphrodite ordered, and the rest nodded. They all moved quickly past the planet, leaving the small child with a mess of curly blue hair on the planet, alone.

"It's tiny Quince." Dan grinned, and as they looked at Pluto, they saw he was right. There sat, a small boy who barely looked 11 years old, shooting his even smaller galaxies from his hands, and chasing them about with shrill giggles.

"So young, so innocent," Nico grins as they watch him, "He looks like, 10 years old. How can someone so small run a planet?"

"He's probably, pfft, think this far back he'd be a good million or so years old. The galaxy is a billion years old, we live for a long time, and barely age. Our time is an illusion and our bodies are meaningless. Literally. These are only vessels for our souls. Embodiments of our planets core."

"Damn." Nico said, and they all looked up towards Neptune.

"Next stop..." Pj said, dreading the answer.

"Me." Skye said, his voice full of apathy.

As they wandered closer to Neptune, they saw a bunch of what resembled other people floating above Skye. He stopped in his tracks, staring at the ongoing situation.

"I can't… I can't watch this again." His voice seemed to break, and with a puff of his gas, he disappeared.

"What's going on..." Nico whispered aloud, as they heard some of the conversation.

"Tranny are you, Isabelle, huh?"

Nico stared in shock as she watched the tiny Skye bring his knees up to his chest.

"Or are you a f*ggot, huh?" One of the people grabbed him, and pulled him up by the neck of his shirt. Nico reached out to go help, but Pj pulled her back quickly.

"You… You can't help. You'll break the fabrics of time." He explained. Dan and Aphrodite seemed to be seething, watching the situation with strained expressions.

"There's not even acceptance in space, fucking space. There's aliens and shit and just because your vessel doesn't match your soul you get beaten the shit out of. It's fucked up." Dan spoke quietly through gritted teeth. They watched, as these space bullies beat the shit out of Skye, who could do nothing to defend himself against the attackers.

The people soon left, laughing to themselves. Nico heard Skye sobbing to himself, going into a small little hut he had made, and came out with some plasters and tissue, to stop his bleeding nose and fix some scrapes on his knee.

"He's so, small. How could they do that to him..." But Nico knew why; space really wasn't that much different to Earth, she thought.

Pj nodded sadly at her, "So, Uranus then."

Dan chuckled quietly at what he said, and they all moved ahead.

"Chris?" They heard a voice call out from the distance, though it wasn't anyone from the group, it was… Phil.

Skye sat on a little cloud of his gas, onlooking Phil and Chris who appeared.

The two both had longer hair, and were a bit shorter. Phil wore a light blue shirt, with black skinny jeans, and Chris wore similar, but his shirt had a game logo on it.

"What is it? Wet dreams about that space boy again?" Chris mocked, a grin on his face.

"No! Well, yes, but that wasn't what I called you over for," Phil said, becoming flustered.

"Oh my god." Dan whispered quietly.

"I want you to help me, help me talk to him. I see him when I go past him sometimes, and… And he seems to like the things I like when I manage to pluck up the courage to engage in small talk. But, I, I would really like to bring him over to my planet." Phil said nervously.

"And do the do?" Chris grinned.

"No! Well, I mean, if he wanted to." Phil said, his voice becoming ever quieter.

"Oh my god." Dan repeated, going bright red.

"I knew it! Okay, I'll devise something with Pj, and we'll bring him over, got it? Mars will be on Uranus, or should I say, up it." Chris smirked.

"Oh my god." Dan and Phil both spoke in unison.

"He'll be here soon, get ready." He said, and was gone again in a cloud of gold smoke.

The rest of the group followed the action, Skye and Nico being up ahead, not wanting to miss a bit. Stopping between Jupiter and Mars to watch Chris, Pj, and Dan.

PJ was sat on his planet, reading a book, when Chris appeared. "Always reading those things, Earthy got you another one, huh?"

"Yes, this one is very good. It's the next one in the series, MockingJay, it's called. But, I can't concentrate." Pj furrowed his eyebrows, and turned his attention to Dan, who was pacing up and down on the neighbouring planet.

"Don't worry, I'll sort it," Chris winked at him, "We're gonna set Uranus and Mars up."

"Oh my." Pj muttered, shaking his head as he went back to his book.

"Just go talk to him, it'll be fine." Dan tried convincing himself as red dust started to arise around him from his steps.

"I mean, it can't be that hard. Besides the fact he's insanely cute, and his eyes are so blue, so blue I could lose myself in them..." He said, seeming to trail off.

Dan was blushing bright red, "This couldn't get any more cringe worthy." He whispered, as Skye tried to hide his sniggers.

"Suddenly, a pale yellow orb appeared in front of Dan, and out popped Chris.

"Dude, Pj can't concentrate with you being so loud, and Phil going on about this hot red dude is driving me insane." Chris looked him up and down with a smirk.

Both past Dan and future Dan went bright crimson.

"You're not being serious?" Dan asked nervously.

"Oh I'm being dead serious. He wants you to come over." Chris said, getting straight to the point.

"Really?"

"Really."

Dan grinned, and went and picked up a CD that had a bow on the corner, "Earth girl got it for me, it's the new muse album."

"Ahh," Chris said, nodding in understanding, "Let's go then shall we?"

After Dan and Chris left to go to Phil, future Dan clasped his face in his hands, "Oh my god we are _not_ watching the rest of this oh god."

Skye and Nico both burst out laughing with one another, and Aphrodite even let out a small chuckle too. Pj grinned at him.

"I think you'll like the next planet, Nico." Pj smiled at her, and she perked up, looking at him curiously.

The group went up ahead, letting Nico lead the way.

Up ahead, there was a planet. It was full of colour, vast expanses of blue oceans, some peaks of white that marked the polar ice caps, some green showing the lands of the world. And up above it all, watching the hustle and bustle of the ever-so-fascinating human life, there sat a woman, with long, flowing, tousled brown hair, that ended in a mix of blue of green. Her skin was a tanned, olive tone, and she looked beautiful, absolutely stunning. As she moved away, brushing back the locks of hair from her face, Nico caught a glimpse of her.

"Mom..?"


	7. Chapter 7

"Mum..."

Nico was gob-smacked, her mouth wide open as she stared at the planet up ahead. Luckily, the woman perched atop it couldn't hear her; she was too engrossed in watching the buzz of human activity below her.

"Ah yes, Scarlette, she's beautiful, don't you think?" Pj smiled.

"You don't have a crush on her, do you Pj? That's my mum, remember..." Nico said apprehensively.

"Oh no no, love isn't really my thing." He reassured her.

"What do you mean?" Nico asked curiously.

"He's aro." Dan said matter-of-factly.

"Aromantic." Pj filled in.

"Ohhh, okay." Nico grinned, and looked up ahead at her mother again The longer she stared, the more homesick she felt.

"It's so fascinating..." Nico could hear the familiar soft tone of her mothers voice echoing in the silence. She longed to talk to her, to get a better look, but they all agreed it was better to stay out of the way.

"So, she can just, go down to Earth whenever she likes? Since she seemed to get you all many things." Nico asked, peeling her eyes away reluctantly from her mother.

"Oh yes, she gets many things from down there, sometimes she just goes down to walk around, have a bit of a holiday, so to speak." Pj explained, smiling at her softly.

Nico nodded. She wished now more than ever that she had some kind of memory or reminder of her mum back up in space. She felt a pang in her heart as she remembered she hadn't even given her mum a proper goodbye.

"Shall we move forward?" Skye asked quietly, and the rest nodded apart from Nico. Bowing her head, she followed along after the others.

"Oooh, this'll be interesting." Dan grinned at Aphrodite. Up ahead, there lay a silvery planet, and sitting above it, head in her hands, sat a younger Aphrodite. A sullen look lay across her face, and as Nico looked closer, she saw staring up ahead at what looked like Harriette. She looked younger and smaller, her caramel skin reflecting beautifully against the sun, her hair tousled and flowing as if they were golden waves. Aphrodite seemed to be captivated by her beauty.

"You had a massive gay crush on her, didn't you!" Nico exclaimed quietly.

"Yeah, I did," Aphrodite replied, her blush couldn't show through her dark skin but Nico could sense it, "Now, keep your voice down, before I hear us..." she said, looking baffled by her words.

Pj smiled at Nico, as he watched up ahead. Aphrodite didn't seem to be acting upon her feelings, and Harriette seemed to be oblivious to her staring.

"When did you, uh, make the first move?" Nico asked curiously.

"Well, not any time soon. I first proposed the idea to start up a team and a safe-holding for all us souls in the solar system together, and she liked the idea. She said she'd seen a lot of the souls, and heard a lot about them, and thought it'd be great for us to get together and team up. Little did I know that she knew many things, and had heard many things, about evil, broken souls from different galaxies, and had heard of many different things across the universe. I didn't realise at first that our key aim would be to protect humanity, but here we are." Aphrodite said, her eyes not focusing properly on the team, but on Harriette.

Skye smiled at her, she really did love Harriette and he admired that.

"Well, I guess we've seen everyone." Skye said, and Nico nodded at him.

"Yeah, Harriette seems to be in a world of her own."

"Should I teleport us back to the crack then?" Skye suggested, and everyone nodded apart from Nico, who looked up in confusion.

"I can teleport things, using my gas and stuff. I can take us all back to places, but not too far, and not unknown places either, I have to know where I'm going." Skye explained before she asked any questions.

"That's pretty neat." She grinned, and they all stood beside him. He held out his hands, and a cloud of blue floaty gas appeared in front of them all. Without hesitation, Skye walked into it, and was gone. The others all followed suit, and when the blue gas was out of their faces, they could see they had arrived back at Neptune.

Pj chewed his lip, as he watched Skye looking over at his younger self. "C'mon, let's go, Skye." He spoke softly, and he walked ahead into the crack.

After they had all got into the ship, Aphrodite got into the front seat and started them off for Casa de Solar Souls.

"So, how are we going to fix this, crack?" Dan asked, trying to break the awkward silence.

"What do you mean?" Nico chirped up.

"Well, we can't just leave it. What if someone accidentally falls into it?" Dan pointed out.

"He makes a good point." Pj chipped in.

"It's near your planet, Skye, you have any suggestions..." Dan tried to talk to him, but Skye had his knees up to his chest, and he was staring out the window, not really taking anything else in. Pj noticed this behaviour, he had seen it many times before, like the time Scarlette said she would be leaving them for Earth. He was devastated by this news, since Scarlette had been like a mother figure to him.

Pj furrowed his eyebrows sadly, and looked at Dan, shaking his head, as if to tell him to leave him be.

Once they had arrived back, Chris and Quince were the first to bid them a warm welcome home. Everyone was happy, and cheerful, apart from Skye, who seemed to lack in emotion. The crew all filed into the house, were Phil and Harriette sat at the table, as if in deep discussion about something very important; but as everyone came in, they nodded at one another and stood up with beams on their face to welcome their loved ones back.

As they were all rejoicing, Quince and Nico separated themselves from the group to talk to Skye.

"Hey, are you okay? You haven't been right since you got back, dude?" Quince asked, his voice full of concern.

Skye sighed quietly, "I just need some time to think, to be alone."

Nico frowned, but nodded, "If that's what you need, then we're not gonna stop you. Take some time for yourself, okay?"

Skye nodded, and hugged them both, "I'll be back soon, okay?"

Quince and Nico nodded, and watched him leave, the door closing quietly behind him.

As they walked back to the festivities, Quince looked at her, trying to ask her what had happened to make Skye so upset, but Nico shook her head, deciding to explain later. For now, she decided to try and be happy with her new friends, and not worry about her home sickness.

Skye decided he would head back to Neptune, and sit and reminisce in memories, both good and bad. He scrunched his eyes shut and brought his knees up to his chest as a memory he thought he'd repressed came back to light.

"Faggot! Tranny! Queer!" The words seemed to echo in his head as he pushed his head tighter between his knees, silent tears slipping down his face.

A hand reached out, and touched his shoulder and Skye's head shot up as he quickly tried to wipe the tears from his face.

"My my, you are rather upset." The strangers voice sounded dark and crisp, and from his appearance, Skye could tell he was a star soul. On his arm he could see some sort of tattoo. It was black, with a white shooting star over the top of it. Skye supposed it was a memoir of his soul.

"What are you doing here? Who are you?" Skye questioned him. He tried to sound tough, but it wasn't working.

The stranger let out a light laugh, which turned into a roar of laughter. "You have no idea who I am, or where I come from. But I know I can help you." He smirked down at him, and before Skye could protest, he had grabbed him by his shirt and had yanked him up.

"Stop! Get the fuck off me!" He screamed, but the man's grip on him just became tighter, the pain forcing tears out of Skye.

"I can give you revenge, fulfilment to your wildest dreams… I can show you a whole new world, boy." He grinned, his eyes seemed to be clouded over, and Skye couldn't tell whether it was from lust or greed. Skye spat in his face, "Get your filthy hands off me."

"Huh, kinky." He grinned, and he suddenly wrapped his hands around Skye's neck, as if to choke him. Skye couldn't do anything. He couldn't scream, or shout, he was weak.

"I have powers much more advanced than yours, wanna see?" He grinned, and he pulled out a stick from his pocket. As he switched it on, it whirred and sparked with what seemed to be white hot electricity. Skye's eyes widened as he watched him.

"Let's kill tonight." Was the last thing Skye heard him say into his ear, as he pressed the pulsing electricity into his side.

Everything went black.

Back at Casa de Solar Souls, Nico was pulling Quince away from the group once again.

"Hey, uh, Quince, I need some help?" Nico said, after she had pulled him away from the group.

"Whatever you need pal." He grinned.

"Well, I… Uh… I need you to help me get to Earth."

 **A/N: Hahhahhah, yep, so, that was a lot. Kind of a filler chapter as I get my head around some things. The next chapter should be all about what's happening to Skye, and that chapter will have a song dedicated to it! See you all in the next one! Leave some reviews please guys 3**


	8. The Sun and The Moon

The Sun and The Moon

She was the moon,

And I was the sun,

And my goodness,

She was beautiful.

Her voice as pure

as pearls, and her skin

as smooth

as dark silk.

Her eyes dazzle

Like the stars that light up

the night sky above.

I like to sit and take in all her grace.

And sometimes

when I am lucky,

I get to listen to her sing

such alluring melodies to her fellow stars

Her hair, so magnificently curly

falls just beyond her shoulders

as dark as the night

yet it shines as bright as day.

I swear, she has me

Under some kind of spell

for how can I feel such affection

Towards someone who is so different to myself

I am loud, and irascible

And yet she is quiet, and passionate

I spend my time, bringing light to the earth in the day

And she brings the most warmth with her somber nights

And she loves me

She does

And I see no point in denying

That I love her too

 **Authors note /**

This is just a filler ! I've had some problems this summer, and have had no motivation to write or do anything, which makes things worse cause I feel bad about leaving y'all hanging. So here is a cute poem of Molly talking about Selene (I should apply this to my school's poem contest)

I am really going to try hard to write, because hopefully it will help me to try and get my motivation back! It is my goal for chapter 8 to be up in at least the next two weeks, okay? If you read this, please leave some nice reviews so I know at least some of y'all are out there ! I'll see you in the next one, -Isaac


	9. Chapter 8

Authors note / yikes I am so sorry I haven't written in like forever guys! I've not been in a good place mentally, since summer really isn't a good time for me currently, but I'm gonna try and get into the hang of writing again more often, just bare with me! Many thanks, Isaac ~

Skye blinked, his eyes slowly opening as he saw a flickering light up ahead. He rubbed his eyes, and as he stood up, he felt… Taller? As he stretched, he looked to one side of him, and saw the man that had attacked him lying on a table. In shock, he jumped back, fearing he would awake at any minute. Behind him, he felt another table, and as he turned, he saw… Himself.

His hand flew up to his mouth to hide a scream, but as he saw his hand, it was bigger, veins popping out of it, it was toned and muscular; the skin was dotted in small black drawings of stars and planets. He held out his arms to look at the unfamiliar look of them and his breathing started to pick up. He ran his hands through his hair, and it felt thicker, and as he pulled it down to look at it, it was black. He felt like screaming. As he looked down, he saw he was wearing a black shirt, and black skinny jeans. This had been everything he had aspired to be, and more. But, this wasn't him. He was laying on a table, so, what was going on?

He felt his mouth moving, and he spoke, but.. He wasn't speaking…

"Hello, Skye… We are Draco, which is Latin for Dragon. Since I am Etamin, the brightest star in the Draco constellation, it felt only right..." He chuckled, but he knew it was, Etamin, the soul who had captured him, who was talking.

"You're meaning to say… That I am bonded… With you..." Skye said, but it came out in a low voice, via the vessel they had both formed.

"Why yes, how else would we have formed something, that I dare say, is much more handsome than my vessel." He chuckled, a low dark laugh that made shivers run down Skye's spine.

"But how… I would've never agreed to bind with you!" He said, on the verge of shouting.

"Well, you didn't," Etamin spoke via their vessel, Draco, "I hate to say that I may have forced you via means of my own to bind with you, but nevertheless, you will enjoy yourself, don't worry." Draco smirked, and all Skye felt like doing was wrapping his arms around himself and making himself as small as possible. He… He had forced him to bind with him… He felt used, he felt horrible. A tear slipped down Draco's cheek, but Etamin was the one who wiped it off, "My dear, don't cry. Don't you feel, powerful?" He grinned.

Skye felt anything but powerful, but he didn't respond. He wouldn't give Etamin the satisfaction of a response.

"Have it your way…" He said slowly, "Now, when I first met you, I told you I could give you revenge, and I keep my word." His voice was low, and icy. Skye didn't like it, but he was also speaking with him. It made him feel weird.

They started to walk down the dark, musky hall way. It didn't look very pleasant, the bricks in the wall seemed to be crumbling, they seemed to be only old rotten stone, and it was frightfully cold. Skye wanted to protest, but it seemed that Etamin was the more dominant soul. They walked on until they reached a room that was full of cells, the ones that they'd use to hold prison inmates. Goosebumps ran up Draco's arm, due to Skye's nerve, and Etamin let out a dark chuckle, "Look around, Skye, notice anyone familiar..." A smirk grew on their face as Etamin spoke. Skye looked around, walking up the narrow pathway via their vessel, and as he looked until the cells he could hardly breathe. All of these people, they had been the ones to bully him and taunt him. They were here, all of them, "H-how..." Skye didn't know what to say.

"I thought I could let you defeat them… With my power, and your ability to contain souls, we make the perfect pair against these powerless bigots." Etamin said, cracking their vessel's knuckles as Skye's breath faltered. Harriette and Aphrodite had always taught him to only attack souls who had done evil and deserved to be taken down. Surely his bullies, and what they had done to him, was a reason to take them down. Skye shut his eyes, and soon opened them with a nod. He let out a small okay.

"Great, glad you agree. How about you pick the first one we take down?" Etamin suggested, and Skye walked down the pathway, and looked into the first cell. He reached the vessels arm out, admiring his muscles, and pulled open the door. The person on the floor sat up with a jerk, his breathing fast. He was noticeably scared, and Skye bit his lip as he moved forward.

"P-please, whatever I did.. I'm sorry! I-I have no idea who you are!" He panicked, pushing himself up against a wall.

Skye stayed silent, not knowing what his response was. He shut his eyes, and reached his hands out. Wisps of dark blue gas wrapped around the captured souls neck, and Skye clenched his fist, making the gas close tightly around his neck. His hands tried to tear at the gas, but he came to no avail as his hands just slipped through it. Skye locked eyes with his victim, drawing his hand closer which moved him forward.

"Let's kill tonight." He whispered softly, before clenching his fist tighter.

The souls vessel seemed to pop, like a balloon, the only thing left being a few dim star soul shards. Wrapping his hands around it, he contained it in a dark gas bubble, and nodded his head.

Etamin let out a roar of laughter, "That was beautiful! Absolutely extravagant, my dear!"

Etamin clapped their vessels hands, and a faint song started to play. Skye recognised it as one of his favourite tracks by Panic! At The Disco. He remembered Scarlette bringing it to him when she used to be around.

"I thought it'd be useful, since we're essentially killing them." Etamin chuckled, and Skye winced at his words.

"Let's just move onto the next one." Skye suggested, and moved into the next cell.

It soon became much easier to him. He was vaporising and containing the souls as if it was going out of fashion. Weirdly, he felt himself starting to become more in time with their new bound vessel. Even if he hated to admit it, he seemed to be getting a kick out of getting his revenge on these souls. They had caused him such distress when he was a young gem, the sweet taste of revenge really was driving him on now.

And as they came towards the end, Etamin felt a slight sense of empowerment. Skye seemed to be completely taking over. Smirking to himself, Etamin let him have his way.

Skye's heart was beating fast against chest. He shut his eyes, the feeling of wanting to screaming coming back. Not out of anguish, not out of pain; but out of exhilaration. His whole body seemed to welcome and accept Etamin even more now, their fusion seeming more natural to him now as he got used to obliterating and capturing the souls. When he opened his eyes again, his eyes burnt with a cold flame of passion, something he'd never felt before!

Before he knew it, all the bullies had been defeated, their souls now his. It was Skye's turn to laugh, an evil manic laugh as he threw their vessel's head back.

"Satisfied?" Etamin asked, in a low voice, and Skye chuckled, their vessels dark eyes twinkling menacingly.

"Satisfied, my, that was the most thrilling experience I've had in decades!" He cried, and threw their head back and laughed even more, before moving through the dark hallways to find more souls to en-capture, the feeling quickly becoming addicting to him. The feeling of blood pumping through his veins, his heart racing with a new found sense of excitement made him feel more alive than ever.

Back at base, a beeping sound went off around the house, and Aphrodite went to investigate.

"What is it?" Harriette asked, coming up behind her as the screen projected the issue as a holographic sign.

"Strange influx in the number of souls being encased. Pj set it up, when he saw a connection between the cases. This is something we should check out." Aphrodite spoke aloud, so Dan, Chris, Phil and Pj could hear from their seats on the sofa.

"Where are Nico and Quince?" Phil asked as he stood up, the four of them heading over and preparing themselves to leave.

"No time to worry about that now, we need to go check out this influx. I'll be driving; let's go." Aphrodite instructed, and they all followed her out to their capsule, where they quickly got in, the capsule's GPS leading to the location the alert had picked up the unnatural number of soul-encasing.

 **Author's Note:**

Hnnnngggg I am so so sorry I haven't uploaded in forever! I had no energy this summer and have felt awful about it! But I am going to try extra extra hard to get these chapters uploaded for you all, okay? Okay, this is kind of a a part one, but I needed to upload real quick (and I couldn't think of an ending yet) and also - I've misplaced my notepad with all my plot info in it! Yikes!


	10. Chapter 9

Previously, on The Solar Souls ~

"Well, I… Uh… I need you to help me get to Earth,"

Quince stared at Nico in absolute shock, too gobsmacked that words failed him.

"Please, Quince, I'm being serious. I need to see my mum. I - It's important." She pleaded him, and Quince rubbed his face and saw the meaningfulness in her eyes; this was no joke, she really did mean it. She really did want him to take her to Earth.

"That's a… pretty big task, Nico. But, I can see what I can do for ya." He said, and Nico pulled him into a hug. He smiled, hugging her back before letting go. He took a hold of her hand, and pulled her along to a backroom.

The room was full of all different kinds of spacecrafts, some silver, some red, and some green: an array of different colours and sizes. Quince headed over to a small, brown spacecraft that looked as if it could barely fit two people. They both climbed in, and Quince turned to Nico.

"D'you think you could put in a rough address into the SatNav?" He asked, and Nico let out a small chuckle,

"Y'all use SatNavs, up in space?" She was rather amused by the idea, and Quince blushed slightly,

"Well yeah, how else would we get anywhere?" He said, and Nico shrugged as she input her old address. Her mum should be home, she thought, and sat back.

Nico thanked her, and revved up the engine. A wall at the end of the garage area started to open at the sound of the machine whirring, and Quince put his foot down on the pedal as Nico felt butterflies rise in her stomach. Whilst the spacecraft took off, Nico played with her fingers and chewed on her lip, coming to a realisation that she actually hadn't thought of what she was gonna say to her mum when she rocked up in a space ship outside the house.

Nerves started to get the better of her, so she decided to look out the window and watch all the stars zoom by, the Casa de Cosmo, as Skye called it, growing ever smaller in the distance, and up ahead, Earth started to fill up the picture. It was incredible, seeing it from such a height, where you could watch the clouds move above, and the shimmering blue of the sea, and the different colouration of the land. It made her feel quite small, comparing herself to the size of the planets which were not so far from reach now.

As they approached the atmosphere, Quince told her to prepare herself for the craft to become a bit heated. Nico looked over at him and raised an eyebrow, but Quince chuckled nervously, "Don't worry, the craft won't… Combust, or anything! Pj builds all these things, and y'know, he's quite the genius. We'll be fine!" He assured her, but Nico took science classes, and knew what happened to comets and meteors when they hit Earth's atmosphere. Nico braced herself, watching as Quince concentrated as they started to speed towards Earth. They broke through, and Nico watched as a layer from the spacecraft broke away, and vaporised.

"Don't worry!" Quince called out, "That's the heat shield, it's taking away the heat from the gas that's being compressed at the rate of our arrival into the atmosphere!" He explained. Nico was slightly baffled, but chose to trust him as they powered through. Once the got out, they glided through clouds before Earth started to become more clear. The tiny island that was the United Kingdom looked even smaller than she could've ever imagined before; she knew it was small, but from above it looked miniscule.

As they started to approach the island, the fear rose in her again. Not from what she was going to say when she met her mother, but fear of how were they going to land! Quince started to pull on the break as they sped forward, trees and roads started to swim into her vision, and she watched as Quince flew over the top of her old school, and they floated above the cars as they zoomed past the traffic. Quince turned into her road, and Nico sat dishevelled in her seat. It had been quite a ride, and she had mixed feelings of wanting to throw up, but also wanting to do it all again.

Quince looked over at her, and let the grin on his face grow as he beamed at her. Nico let out a small chuckle, before howling in laughter, letting go of the feeling of anxiety before looking behind Nico to see her mother, dressed in a cardigan and slippers, looking out at the space capsule that was parked outside her house. The smile instantly fell, and she gulped as she saw her mother standing not so far from her reach. Quince turned around to see what Nico was looking at, and let out a small 'oh' before giving Scarlette a small smile and a wave. He pressed a button which opened the doors to the capsule, and Nico took a shaky step out. Her mother had a neutral expression, as if she didn't know whether to be angry, or rejoiced.

"H-hi mum." Nico managed to let out, as she walked nervously onto the pavement. Scarlette let out a breath, rubbing her face with her hand, before opening up her arms.

Nico's urge to go up and hug her overran the anxiety she was feeling, and she went up and wrapped her arms around her mum. She gripped onto her mother tightly as Scarlette wrapped her own arms around Nico. Both of them holding back tears, they hugged for a good minute as Quince watched on with a smile. Scarlette pulled back, but held onto Nico's shoulders as she looked at her,

"My my Nicolette, it is a shock to see you again! As much as it was to hear you had disappeared in such a flash." Nico blushed at her mother's use of her full name. Quince looked up at Scarlette apologetically, "I-I'm sorry we took Nico in such a rush, Scarlette, Aphrodite and Harriette said it was urgent." Quince explained to her, but Scarlette smiled at him.

"Hey, it's okay. I've spoken with them, they're the secretive type, I should know. And it's been awhile since I've seen you too, Quince! How about we all go inside, have some tea, and something to eat, eh?" Scarlette recommended, and Nico and Quince both nodded at the idea.

They all went inside, and Scarlette told the two to sit as she went and got some juice and biscuits, and made herself a coffee. She brought the snacks through and placed them on the coffee table, and Nico and Quince took their drinks and sipped quietly as Scarlette took her seat.

"So, what happened?" Scarlette asked, and Nico held her drink in her hands as she pondered over all that happened. Quite a lot had happened, she thought. She had been taken, into space. She nearly passed out after the moon was taken by three dwarf stars, where her friends had gotten into a fight and two of them had to retreat to their souls. Then she learned about binding whilst waiting for her friends to return. Then there was that crack in time near neptune, where she got to go to the past, and then she came back and her friend had left because he was upset. Then she decided to come home and see her mum.

"Quite a lot." Quince put it simply, and Nicolette nodded.

"I got to meet the Moon and the Sun. And I've learnt a lot of stuff about solar souls too," She started off, and Scarlette smiled, "That's excellent! What have you learnt?"

"Well, I learnt what happens when a soul has to retreat to it's planet to re-energise, and how binding works!" She said, and Scarlette smiled at her,

"Sounds very interesting."

"It has been interesting," Quince said, sipping at his juice before taking a bite from a biscuit, "Nico learns really quickly, she's been amazing so far!" Quince beamed, and Scarlette smiled at Nico as she blushed.

"I tried my best." She shrugged, and Scarlette took a gulp of her coffee before looking at Nico,

"Now, you've been there for a while now Nico, I want to know that you're happy there. I need to know that, you're okay," her voice had dropped to a serious tone, "Some of the stuff you'll face, it won't all be fun and games, you'll come across some scary things up there. I need to know that you will try to keep yourself safe, and that you are certain about joining The Solar Souls." Scarlette said, and Nico chewed on her lip as Quince also turned to look at her.

She had to admit, some of the stuff she had already faced did scare her slightly, but there was a passion in her, that told her she had to continue. Whatever was going on in space, she had to be a part of it. It filled with an energy she couldn't hold back, and when she looked at her mum, that's when the specks of Earth's souls reflected in her eyes, and Scarlette knew she had made her choice.

"I want to stay mum, b-but… I don't want to leave you." She said, and Scarlette reached out and rubbed her knee,

"Hey, there's ways we can keep in contact, don't worry. I'll have Aphrodite and Harriette get Pj hooked you up to a contacting device, okay? You won't have left me, and there'll be ways you can come and see me. Don't worry and fret yourself about me. I know what you're doing is for the greater good of humanity, and for the galaxies." She smiled at both Nico and Quince, and Quince nodded as Nico smiled.

They stayed for a while, Quince telling Scarlette all about how the others were doing, and Scarlette talked about family and friends from on Earth. Catching up was nice, but it was getting late, and already people were stopping and staring at the spacecraft, marvelling at where it had come from.

Quince and Nico stood up, and so did Scarlette, and gave them both long, meaningful hugs before they left. "I'll be in contact soon, mum." Nico promised, and Scarlette nodded and smiled at her, before giving her a final hug, and they both headed out to the capsule.

"It was lovely seeing you again, Scarlette!" Quince called out, and Scarlette gave him a warm smile,

"It was a pleasure seeing you again too, Quince. Send all my love back to the crew, okay? I wish you all the very best!" She waved at them as they got back into the capsule. Quince started up the engine, and it began to rise into the air as dust arose around the vehicle. Nico waved out to her mum, before they set off.

Nico sat back in her seat and let out a relaxed sigh. She felt a lot better after all that, and was happy to be going back into a new place she called home. It was exciting, and offered her so many new prospects, she liked the adventure and spontaneity of it all.

As soon as they pushed through the clouds, and broke out of the atmosphere and into the stars, she turned to look out her window and pressed her hand to it. The stars never ceased to amaze her, and she watched as a shooting star flew past, and then something else moved. It looked as if it was coming… towards them?

"Stop!" Nico shouted, and Quince halted to a stop and looked at her in confusion and soon shouted as Nico pressed a button to open her door. A human like figure had come to a stop, barely 50 meters away.

Nico moved forward as Quince quickly got out, but tried not to move too far from his capsule.

"Hello?" Nico called out, the head of the person in front of her hung down, their short mess of curly hair covering their face as Nico moved tentatively towards them. They wore white shorts, and a white shirt, but they looked torn, and rugged. They wore a faded red patch on their arm that looked faded, and as Nico was going to move closer, the figures head rose.

They had bright white eyes with a blueish tinge, and Nico could feel a slight heat radiate from them. They seemed startled, and moved back from Nico slightly as they looked around.

"Yo, it's okay. I'm not gonna hurt you. I - Uh, I'm Nico." Nico introduced herself and tried to calm the person down.

They seemed to calm a little, the bright light of their eyes dimming slightly as they took a deep breath. "S-sorry, I… I am Vega."

 _ **Author's Note: Yooooooo, I am so sorry I've been gone for so freaking long! I've had a serious case of Writer's Block, but now I'm back I'm feelin' better than ever, ahahahah!**_

 _ **I'm thinkin' of uploading a version of TSS to AO3, but without Youtubers and my own original characters, that has better editing. That shall be done in due course, but for now I'll be focusing on writing and uploading the next few chapters. I will see y'all in the next character, where Vega will have their proper introduction!**_


	11. Chapter 10

Meanwhile, with Aphrodite, Harriette, Chris, Pj, Dan and Phil. . .

The six of them sat in the capsule that they all used as a team when they needed to get anywhere together. Of course, Pj had set them all up with their own space crafts, but it was difficult to fit up to nine crafts all in one area when on a mission, so Pj designed a larger one for them all.

Aphrodite sat in the front with Harriette, like they usually did. Aphrodite didn't trust anyone else to get them to destinations safely, so she usually did the driving; Harriette was her co-pilot.

"Hey Pj, what did Aphrodite mean by you set up this alert due to the connections between cases?" Chris asked, perking up and looking towards Pj.

Dan and Phil both nodded, looking at Pj curiously as he let out a nervous laugh.

"Well, with all the missions we went on, there seemed to be an increase in the amount of souls being encased and taken, for example stars or planets from out of our own galaxy. I thought it'd be useful to have a head start at getting to a situation before it's too late." Pj explained, and Chris nodded as he thought about it.

"Why do you think they're getting rid of so many souls?" Dan asked.

"I have no idea, but whatever it's for, it's not good. At all." Pj said, and looked down as all the others felt a chill run over them. None of them had any idea why this was happening, and it seriously concerned them all.

They arrived at what looked like a dingy prison in the middle of a cluster of dying stars. They all got out one by one, Aphrodite leading the group. Phil wrapped his arms around him and rubbed his arms as he felt a coldness run through him, "I don't like this." He whispered, but loud enough for all the group to hear. Dan moved up closer to him, and they all moved in through the doors.

The door was old, wooden and rotting, and the hallways didn't look any better. The stench of mould was strong, and the floors were damp and an overwhelming feeling of foreboding filled the air.

A bitter laugh could be heard from where they stood, and quickly Aphrodite ordered her group into a nearby room. Chris, being the clumsiest in the group, stumbled back and the clang of rusty metal bars could be heard in the room. Pj looked anxiously at him, before looking at amazement into the cells that filled the room. It was dark, but he tried his hardest to look at the technology that lay in each of the cells. What looked like surgical drips were hooked up in the cells, and whatever these drips had been connected to, had been ripped away from the needle and, Pj figured, had been obliterated. Long tubes all hooked up to the ceilings, where they all fed into a central pipe which carried down the hallway.

Pj looked at the others who stood, their confused faces staring at him, before he signalled for them all to follow him. The dark hallway seemed to brighten towards the middle, and Aphrodite told them all to stay back before going up ahead alone to check the route was safe.

What laid up ahead was nothing she had in mind. Shocked and scared, she stood, frozen, as she looked down upon the table.

Chris looked up ahead, wondering what was taking her so long. The rest of the group decided to just move along, and when their eyes fell upon what Aphrodite was looking at, they all came to a halt. Phil looked as white as a sheet as Dan held back a stutter.

"W-what on…" Harriette managed to let out quietly as she looked upon the sight.

The soulless body of Skye laid on the table ahead of them, his blue hair falling gently in curls upon his pale white face. What looked like hot, scorch marks were seared into the side of his galaxy t-shirt, the electric burns leaving red marks in the skin.

"Jesus… This, this can't be happening…" Dan said, as Pj moved forward to Skye and then looked across the room before pointing.

A tall, muscular man lay on the other table. He had short, black hair, and tanned skin that was covered in tattoos. He had a black patch on his upper arm, that had the imprint of what looked like a shooting star on it. It looked oddly familiar to Pj, but he had no chance in thinking straight at this point.

"D-don't tell me…" Phil said quietly, as Aphrodite looked upon the man with clenched fists.

"I know what you're all thinking, quite literally," Pj began, and looked down, "And I must have to say, I think you're quite right."

Aphrodite turned to the group as footsteps could be heard, "We need to be careful, you understand me? Whatever we're up against, whatever this… person, has made Skye do. They are bounded, and when we attack their vessel, we are attacking Skye too. We must bear this in mind." Aphrodite said quickly but strictly, making sure her team understood that she was being serious.

They walked further down the corridor, lights flickering in various cells they walked past.

Up ahead, a roaring laugh and quickening footsteps could be heard, and the group prepared for whatever they were up against. There was no point in hiding, since the group presumed their attacker had sensed their presence.

Draco tried not to run down the hallway, a wide, menacing grin on their face. Cracking their neck, they walked up to approach the group.

"I knew you'd arrive sooner or later, glad you could join the party!" Draco practically cackled. Dan tried to listen for a particular voice, but, a sickening feeling in his stomach arose as he could her Skye's voice ring off the vessel's tongue.

"It's been so much fun! But, I could really use a _real_ enemy. One that won't plead for mercy! One that'll put up a true fight." Draco smirked, and Aphrodite's fists curled up in anger; this person had taken Skye and done something horrible to him.

"We don't have to do this!" Pj called out, trying to stay calm but failing miserably, "I-if you just gave Skye up, we will leave you be!"

Draco blinked, before a howling laughter filled the room, the vibrations sending horrid vibes through each of them.

"You really think I'd give up something like _this_?!" Draco wiped a few pretend tears from their eye.

Draco's fist clenched, and the tattoos on their arm seemed to form around the knuckles, before he swung a punch right at Pj, who quickly ducked.

Aphrodite nodded at the others, but they already knew what they had to do.

Chris charged right at Draco, going for the knees as he tried to push Pj out of the way, but Draco simply jumped out of the way, landing over the top of Chris. Draco pulled him up by the cuff of his shirt, before pushing him away with such force, he was sent flying against the bars of one of the cells. Pj scrambled over to Chris to make sure he was okay as Aphrodite and Harriette engaged their attacks.

They circled Draco quickly, and both took either side of their body before trying to grab their arms to pin them with, but, their hands both fell through the body, as...as if it were…

Gas, one of Skye's key tactics was to turn his body to gas.

The body hardened again, and Draco grabbed both their arms instead, and swung them both in front of them, so they collided with one another, and fell back against the floor, both being winded from the fall as Draco cackled.

"Now this is what I'm talking about!"

Dan's eyes seemed to flicker with flames, and Phil looked over at him to see that his fists looked like molten rock. Phil bit his lip, but called out to Draco.

"Hey, you want a fight?! Come and get it!" Phil called, his voice icy and showing none of the nerves he felt. Dan looked at him, confused, but Phil gave him a look that told him to trust him.

Draco grinned, pearly white teeth gritted together as he moved forward. Phil waited, watching their moves carefully. Pj also watched closely as he figured out what he was doing, and quickly spoke to Dan telepathically,

" _He's gonna distract them, wait for him to do his thing, you'll know when to strike."_

Dan looked worried, but nodded as he watched Phil again.

First to chuck a punch was Phil, but Draco ducked. They giggled like it was a game, and soon enough their fist was connected with Phil's chest.

But to Draco's surprise, Phil didn't fall back or cry in pain, instead Draco's fist let out a fizzing sound, and as they pulled their fist back out, they saw it was frozen stiff.

Shock ran through Draco, but before they knew it, sizzling noises came from their arms and they howled in pain as they realised Dan was holding onto their arms with his molten hands.

Aphrodite saw her opportunity, and she stood up and walked behind Draco, taking their arms from Dan, and twisting them behind Draco's back. Struggling, they tried to break free from her grasp, but a hot hand was put on their shoulder once again and they quietened.

"That was quite a fight you put up there…" Chris spoke up; he barely wanted to fight Draco anyways, not wanting to hurt Skye.

Pj walked forward, "Now, we can do this the easy, or the hard way. We need you to unbind, now. If not, then we'll need to use force… and… neither of us want that." He said, and surprisingly, Draco had a smile on their face.

"Fine, we'll unbind," They said calmly, and Harriette sensed something uneasy about them unbinding so easily.

"How funny, Skye doesn't seem to wanna give this up…" Draco said, and laughed once again as they all looked at the nasty work of binding in front of them.

Aphrodite felt her grip loosen on Draco, and she realised they were unbinding. Two souls floated in their air above them. One was a strong, white starry ball, that seemed to zoom off quickly. The other, was a weaker blue glow, a gas ball mixed with pieces of rock. They all watched as it flew back to the vessels.

Harriette perked up, and pointed back down the hallway. "He's gonna escape!" She cried, and ran back, the group following her, only to see the man give them a wink and step through some kind of portal. Aphrodite tried to run after him, but the portal had vanished as soon as he had stepped through it.

Next to them, shallow breaths could be heard coming from Skye's vessel, meaning his soul had returned safely.

Chris sighed in relief, but before Harriette could give the instruction, he had already picked up Skye carefully to carry back to the ship.

Walking in silence, they followed the corridor back to their spacecraft, and they all filed in.

Skye stayed pretty much unconscious the whole way back to 'Casa de Cosmo'. Returning home, they were met with Nico and Quince.

"Where have you been? Are you alright? What happened?" The questions were asked, but not answered, and the two fell silent as they saw Chris carrying Skye out of the ship.

"We… Have a lot to discuss…" Pj said quietly, and everyone was in agreement as they headed for the front room.

 **Author's Note / Oh my freakin goodness it has been a bit of a while. I'm not even gonna explain, just, sorry. Is anyone even interested anymore? - Isaac**


End file.
